Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 5197
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009297.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] , 5(N01)# M009 , 8(N01) M376 , 1(N14)# [...] [...] , 9(N01)# 1(N08A) M270~c M009# , 5(N01) M387~c# M005~a M032 , 1(N01) |M157+M381| [...] , [...] [...] , 9(N01) M112~c , 2(N30C) M009# , 6(N01) M032 , 1(N01) M292~f , 1(N14)# 1(N01) [...] , 1(N14)# 1(N01) x , 1(N01)# x [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 5197. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009297) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009297..
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.