Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 5240
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009338.
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] , 1(N45) 6(N14) [...] [...] , [...] 1(N14)#? M305# M388 M110 M242~b# M096 [...] , [...] [...] x , 2(N01)# 1(N39B)# x x , 1(N01)# [...] M320# M288 , 1(N01) 1(N39B) 1(N24) [...] M103~2# M254~a x M387~c M288 , 5(N01) 3(N39B) 1(N14)? [...] x , 2(N14) 1(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N30D) [...] M259#? M281~f M096 M288 , 3(N14) 2(N01) [...] [...] , [...] 1(N24) M304 M388# M115# |M296+M296| M288# , 1(N14) 3(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C) [...] M288# , 1(N01)# 1(N39B) 1(N24) [...] , 2(N01)# M073~b M230~a M096 M288 , 3(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 5240. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009338) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009338..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.