Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 5055
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009552.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M250~a M315# x , 3(N01) M250~a M131 M262 M218 , 2(N01)# x [...] , [...] [...] M347# x M223 , 1(N14) M054# M004 M066 , 3(N01) M262 |M106+M288| M066 , 2(N01)# [...] M388#? M066# M066# x M057# , 1(N01)#? M371# M332# M131 M263 x , 1(N01)# [...] x M096#? , 3(N01) M390 M262#? M096#? , 3(N01) x x [...] , [...] [...] M390 M004 M218 , 2(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 5055. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009552) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009552..
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.