Position in chronology
MDP 06, 254
About this tablet
This is a proto-Elamite clay tablet from Susa, Iran, dating to the Uruk-related proto-Elamite period (roughly the later 4th millennium BCE) — one of the world's earliest writing systems, used at Susa for a few centuries before falling out of use and remaining undeciphered to this day. It appears to be an administrative or accounting record: rows of impressed circular and wedge-shaped numeral marks (representing counted quantities of some commodity, animal, or ration) are paired with proto-Elamite word-signs that functioned as headings, classifiers, or commodity/institution names. Because proto-Elamite script has not yet been phonetically or semantically deciphered, scholars can identify the numerical values and catalogue the individual signs (given here as M- and N- codes) but cannot yet translate what the signs actually mean or say. The tablet is badly damaged, with a large chunk missing from the center of the obverse, obscuring several entries.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This clay tablet is an ancient bookkeeping record from Susa, kept in a script called proto-Elamite that nobody today can actually read. What survives looks like a list: several lines, each opening with one or more picture-like signs (perhaps naming a person, place, or type of goods) followed by a count — some number of units, marked with different-shaped number stamps for different sizes of quantity. A line near the top just reads '2 units' after its heading sign; later entries run to '5 units,' or compound counts made of several different-sized numeral marks together. A large piece is broken out of the middle of the tablet, so a number of entries in that section are simply gone. The surviving reverse continues in the same format — heading signs followed by numeral counts — before the tablet breaks off again near the bottom, its final total only partly preserved.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse: 1. [heading sign] M157 2. M374~c , 2(N01) 3. M124 M391 M218~b(#) M295~wa [...] , [...] 4(N01) 3(N39B) 1(N24)(#?) 4. [...] , 1(N14) 3(N01) 2(N39B) 5. [...] M066 , 1(N14) 3(N01) 3(N39B) 6. M218 M370 M219 M263 , 2(N01) 7. M263 M242~b M096 , 5(N01) 8. M386~a M242~b M096 , 1(N14) 2(N01) 2(N39B) 9. [...] M352~n |M218+X|(?) , [...] 10. M218(#) M295~ka M218 , 3(N01) Reverse: 11. M146(#) M380 M263 [...] , [...] 12. [...] M218 M295~ka M218 , 3(N01) 13. x , 14. [...] , 2(N45) 2(N14) 3(N39B) 1(N24)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
M157 , M374~c , 2(N01) M124 M391 M218~b# M295~wa [...] , [...] 4(N01) 3(N39B) 1(N24)#? [...] , 1(N14) 3(N01) 2(N39B) [...] M066 , 1(N14) 3(N01) 3(N39B) M218 M370 M219 M263 , 2(N01) M263 M242~b M096 , 5(N01) M386~a M242~b M096 , 1(N14) 2(N01) 2(N39B) [...] M352~n |M218+X|? , [...] M218# M295~ka M218 , 3(N01) M146# M380 M263 [...] , [...] [...] M218 M295~ka M218 , 3(N01) x , [...] , 2(N45) 2(N14) 3(N39B) 1(N24)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 254. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008049) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.