Position in chronology
MDP 31, 027
Translation · reference
ExperimentalSource: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009367.
Why it matters
Transliteration
M305 , M269~b , 2(N01) M260 , 2(N01) |M036+1(N30D)| , 3(N39B) 1(N24)# M379 , 1(N30C) M278~g , 1(N30C) M293~d , 1(N30C)# 2(N30D)#? x , 1(N39B) M210~g , 3(N39B) 1(N24) M293~d , 2(N01) 1(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C)?
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 31, 027. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009367) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P009367..
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.