Position in chronology
MDP 06, 210
About this tablet
One of the oldest administrative records in human history, this small clay tablet from Susa in southwestern Iran dates to roughly 3200–3000 BCE, at the very dawn of writing. It uses proto-Elamite script — a still largely undeciphered notation system used for economic accounting at Susa — to record quantities of commodities distributed to or collected from named categories of workers, animals, or goods. The reverse bears circular impressed numerals alongside what appear to be round-punch tallies, the earliest form of numerical notation. Its survival in the Louvre gives scholars a rare physical anchor for understanding how writing and record-keeping emerged independently in ancient Iran at almost exactly the same moment as in Mesopotamia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is an accounting record. A heading sign introduces the entry, followed by several commodity or personnel categories each paired with their quantities: one group records roughly two large units and one medium unit; another records two small units; a further entry shows two large units and one medium; and a combined category at the end tallies one large unit and three medium units. Several entries are too damaged or broken to read. The reverse preserves additional numerical impressions that likely cross-reference or summarize the obverse totals.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineM157 , M124 M338 M009 M288 , 3(N01) [...] M320~f M320# , 2(N39B) 1(N24) M218 M175 , 2(N01) M387~ee [...] , [...] M124 M009 M139 M295~a , 2(N39B) 1(N24) [...] , [...] 1(N45)# 6(N14) 1(N24) |M218+M288|# M288 , 1(N45) 3(N14)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M157 , M124 M338 M009 M288 , 3(N01) [...] M320~f M320# , 2(N39B) 1(N24) M218 M175 , 2(N01) M387~ee [...] , [...] M124 M009 M139 M295~a , 2(N39B) 1(N24) [...] , [...] 1(N45)# 6(N14) 1(N24) |M218+M288|# M288 , 1(N45) 3(N14)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 210. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008010) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.