Chapter 01 · 4000 – 3100 BCE
Uruk Period
The birth of the city, the birth of writing.
~3000 BCE · Sb 15313 — Louvre Museum, Paris, France
MDP 26S, 4838
In plain English
This is a fragment of a ledger. The first surviving entry names a commodity or account whose amount is lost in the break. The second records eleven units of another item. Two further entries each register a single unit, and one more line begins with a sign but breaks off before the quantity. The sign values themselves are unknown — only the numbers can still be read — and the back of the tablet was left blank.
AI-generated reading paraphrase; compare with the translation below.
“obverse […] |M175+M288|, M324~d, M261~d1 — […] […] |M305+M136|, M261~d1 — 1(N14) 1(N01) [= 11 units] … M263 — […] […] … — 1(N01) … M263 — 1(N01) |M175+M388| […] — […] reverse (uninscribed)”
Source: engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved) · claude-opus-5 · low confidence
Read the full tablet entry~3000 BCE · Sb 15319 — Louvre Museum, Paris, France
MDP 26S, 4844
In plain English
This is a broken accounts sheet. It opens with a heading sign that marks the document type, then runs through a series of entries, each naming a party or a commodity and then giving its amount. Most of the figures are lost with the missing surface, but three survive: one entry of 3 units in the smaller measure, another of 1 large unit plus 2 small units and 1 fractional unit, and a third of 5 large units and 3 small ones. The rest of the lines break off before their numbers, and the back of the tablet was left blank.
AI-generated reading paraphrase; compare with the translation below.
“Obverse 1. M157 (heading / document classifier) — 2. M217~a[?] M377 M247~c[?] M124 M377 M386~a M240 M096 x M288[?] — [ ... numerals broken away ] 3. [ ... ] M222~e x M218 — 3(N39B) 4. M029~a[?] M240[?] M096[??] [ ... ] — [ ... numerals broken away ] 5. [ ... ] — 1(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N24) 6. M218[?] x M096[?] — 5(N01)[?] 3(N39B) 7. M073~b[??] M242~b [ ... ] — [ ... numerals broken away ] (The remainder of the obverse is broken away; the reverse carries no inscription.)”
Source: engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved) · claude-opus-5 · low confidence
Read the full tablet entry~3000 BCE · Sb 15322 — Louvre Museum, Paris, France
MDP 26S, 4847
In plain English
This is a short ledger, and only the numbers survive as meaning. Each line pairs a commodity or personal designation — written in signs we cannot read — with a quantity: one unit, then an amount lost in a break, then two units, one unit, three units, one unit, another lost figure, and two final entries of one unit each. Several lines begin or end in damage, and the last line is gone entirely. Nothing on the reverse can be read.
AI-generated reading paraphrase; compare with the translation below.
“(obverse) [...] ... M376 — 1 (unit) M009 [...] — [...] [...] ... M371(?) ... — 2 (units) M318(?) M004 M218 M305(?) — 1 (unit) [...] — 3 (units) M230 M096 M152~d — 1 (unit) |M131+M388| M263 [...] — [...] ... M376 — 1 (unit) M352~n [...] M218 M376 — 1 (unit) [...] — [...] (The remainder is broken away; the reverse preserves no legible signs.)”
Source: engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved) · claude-opus-5 · low confidence
Read the full tablet entry~3000 BCE · Sb 15339 — Louvre Museum, Paris, France
MDP 26S, 4848
In plain English
This is a broken ledger. The first entry is lost. Then: one unit against the sign-group M029~b; two units against M369~a; one against M072; four against an entry whose heading has broken away; one against the group M029~b–M388–M074~f. The doubled sign M377 follows, but its figure is gone. Three more single-unit entries come next — one for a lost heading, one for M032, one for M223 — and the last legible line pairs the signs M001 and M139 with a number that no longer survives. Everything after that is broken off.
AI-generated reading paraphrase; compare with the translation below.
“(obverse) […] — [broken] M029~b — 1(N01) M369~a — 2(N01) M072 — 1(N01) […] — 4(N01) M029~b M388 M074~f — 1(N01) |M377+M377| — [broken] […] — 1(N01) M032 — 1(N01) M223 — 1(N01) (…) M001 M139 — [broken] (The remainder of the surface is lost; no further entries are legible.)”
Source: engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved) · claude-opus-5 · low confidence
Read the full tablet entry~3000 BCE · Sb 15323 — Louvre Museum, Paris, France
MDP 26S, 5008
In plain English
This is a ledger. The first lines are broken away. What remains reads like a column of tallies: against the sign M153, ten units; against M244, three; two damaged entries follow that cannot be read; M153 again, one; then a group of four signs (M110, probably M242, M096, and one more that is illegible) with one unit; M153 again, fourteen; an unreadable sign with two; a variant of M153 with thirty-four; M387~l together with M288, one; and M387~a, one. The reverse carries no further writing. Whatever these goods were, the scribe was counting them by tens and ones, and the largest single figure preserved is thirty-four.
AI-generated reading paraphrase; compare with the translation below.
“(obverse, column of entries) [...] , [...] M153 , 1(N14) — 10 M244 , 3(N01) — 3 [two unread signs] [...] , [...] [...] , [...] M153 , 1(N01) — 1 M110~a M242~b(?) M096 [unread sign] , 1(N01) — 1 M153 , 1(N14) 4(N01) — 14 [unread sign] , 2(N01) — 2 M153~a , 3(N14) 4(N01) — 34 M387~l M288 , 1(N01) — 1 M387~a , 1(N01) — 1 (reverse: uninscribed apart from the ruled entries at the left edge; no further text preserved)”
Source: engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved) · claude-opus-5 · low confidence
Read the full tablet entry~3000 BCE · Sb 15346 — Louvre Museum, Paris, France
MDP 26S, 5036
In plain English
A short ledger, headed by a document marker, then item by item: the first commodity, 2 units; the next, 2 units of a different measure; another entry, 1 unit; the same commodity again, 1 unit; a further category whose quantity has broken away; and a final line combining 1 unit of each of three different measures. The account closes with a single large unit, most likely the total. The reverse carries no readable writing. The commodity names cannot be translated — the script has never been deciphered — but the numbers themselves are intact.
AI-generated reading paraphrase; compare with the translation below.
“(Obverse) Heading: M157~a M302~t(?) M387 M009 M264~a₁ — 2(N01) M297[?] — 2(N39B)[?] […] M263~b(?) — 1(N01) M297 — 1(N39B) M002 — [quantity lost in break] M288 — 1(N01) 1(N39B) 1(N30C) (Total / final entry:) 1(N34) (Reverse: no legible text; the surface preserves only traces of impressions and is otherwise blank or effaced.)”
Source: engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved) · claude-opus-5 · low confidence
Read the full tablet entry~3000 BCE · Sb 15347 — Louvre Museum, Paris, France
MDP 26S, 5037
In plain English
The surviving entries of this ledger read, in order: an item (its name partly broken away) — 3 units; another item marked twice with the same sign — 5 units; a third entry whose quantity is lost; an unnamed item — 1 unit; a compound heading followed by a broken sign — 1 unit; a further entry — 2 units, with the rest of the line broken; and finally one more commodity — 2 units plus a smaller measure and two of a still smaller one. The signs naming the goods belong to the undeciphered Proto-Elamite writing system, so only the numbers can be read with confidence. Everything else on the fragment is lost.
AI-generated reading paraphrase; compare with the translation below.
“(obverse) [...] M371 M387 M009 M264~a₁ — 3 (N01) [...] M066 M066 |M036 + 1(N30D)| — 5 (N01) M146 [...] — [...] [...] — 1 (N01) |M305 + M320| [...] M260~1 — 1 (N01) |M036 + 1(N30D)| — 2 (N01) [...] M297 — 2 (N01), 1 (N39B), 2 (N30C) (No further text is preserved; the remaining faces of the fragment carry no legible signs.)”
Source: engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved) · claude-opus-5 · low confidence
Read the full tablet entry~3000 BCE · Sb 15348 — Louvre Museum, Paris, France
MDP 26S, 5038
In plain English
The tablet opens with a header sign, then lists items with their quantities. The first entry names several commodity or agent signs, but its number is broken off. The next entry ends with the figure 2, and a following line — its description lost — also records 2. A final entry begins with two more signs and then breaks away. Everything after that is missing, and the reverse of the tablet was never written on. Because proto-Elamite remains undeciphered, we can follow the accounting structure — item, item, number — without knowing what was being counted.
AI-generated reading paraphrase; compare with the translation below.
“Obverse (Heading) M157~a — M038~a, M381, M388, M338~b[?] … — [numeral lost] … M242~ab[?], M380~b, M048~c, M218 — 2(N01)[?] … — 2(N01) M254~a, M380~b[?], (traces) … — [numeral lost] (Remainder of the obverse broken away) Reverse: uninscribed.”
Source: engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved) · claude-opus-5 · low confidence
Read the full tablet entry