Position in chronology
CahDAFI 8, 95 16
About this tablet
This is a small accounting tablet from Susa in southwestern Iran, written around 3100–2900 BCE in proto-Elamite, an early script related to, but separate from, Mesopotamian proto-cuneiform. Proto-Elamite is still undeciphered. We can read its numbers but not its words, so each entry pairs a sign or sign-group of unknown meaning with a count. The surviving figures (12, 13, 3 and a small fraction) suggest a short record of goods or people, perhaps an allocation list from one of the world's earliest bureaucracies. Even unread, it shows administrators on the Iranian plateau keeping written accounts at almost the same moment as their neighbours in Uruk.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The start of the record is lost. The first readable entry names an item or person written with the signs M377 and M251 plus two unclear signs, but its amount has broken off. The next entry ends in a small fractional measure. Then come three counted entries: 12 for the item written M146, 13 for the group written M387 M240 M096, and 3 for M177~a. Between them is an entry of three signs, ending in M218, that carries no number. The final line begins with an unreadable sign, and the rest is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , M377 M251 (unread sign) (unread sign), [...] [...], 1 (N39B fraction) M146 (unread sign): 12 (1 ten, 2 units) M387 M240 M096: 13 (1 ten, 3 units) (unread sign) (unread sign) M218 M177~a: 3 (unread sign), [...]
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
[...] , M377# M251# x x , [...] [...] , 1(N39B) M146# x 1(N14) 2(N01) M387 M240 M096# , 1(N14) 3(N01) x x M218# M177~a# , 3(N01) x , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — CahDAFI 8, 95 16. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P009434) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-11-08/v10-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
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