Position in chronology
MDP 06, 275
About this tablet
This is a small clay tablet from Susa (modern Shush, in southwestern Iran) inscribed in the proto-Elamite script, one of the world's oldest and still largely undeciphered writing systems, used around 3100–2900 BCE for administrative bookkeeping. The layout — rows of pictographic signs followed by numerical notations separated by a comma-like divider — is characteristic of an accounting or tally record, likely tracking quantities of goods (grain, animals, or other commodities) allocated to or received from named categories or officials. Because the proto-Elamite sign values are not phonetically decipherable, scholars can identify the structure of the accounts (commodities, quantities, totals) but not the specific words, names, or exact goods involved. The tablet is broken on most edges, so only fragments of several lines survive.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a fragmentary accounting tablet in an ancient, still-undeciphered script from Susa. What survives looks like a series of ledger entries: a string of pictographic signs (standing for people, goods, or categories we cannot read) followed by numbers recorded in the tablet's own counting system — quantities like '5 and 3,' '2,' '1 and 1 and 2,' and so on. The tablet is broken at the edges and in the middle of several lines, so we only catch pieces of each entry rather than complete transactions. It was almost certainly a routine record of goods or rations being counted and tallied, but its exact subject cannot be recovered because the proto-Elamite writing system has not been phonetically deciphered.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Line 1) [...] ..., 5(N01) 3(N39B) [...] (Line 2) [...], [...] 2(N30C) (Line 3) sign M009 (proto-Elamite, reading uncertain) — sign M149 (variant a1) — sign M388 — sign M387 — sign M387 — sign M352 (variant n2) — sign M228 (variant ga) — sign M347 — sign M377 (variant e), [...] (Line 4) [...], [...] 1(N24) 1(N30C) (Line 5) sign M175+M136 (compound, reading uncertain) — sign M387 (variant ca), 1(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C) (Line 6) [broken sign] [...], [...] (Line 7) [...], [...] 1(N01) 1(N39B) 1(N30C) (Line 8) sign M038 (variant a1) [broken sign] [...], [...]
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
[...] x , 5(N01)# 3(N39B) [...] [...] , [...] 2(N30C)# M009~a M149~a1 M388 M387 M387 M352~n2 M228~ga M347 M377~e , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N24)# 1(N30C)# |M175+M136|#? M387~ca , 1(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C) x [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N01)# 1(N39B)# 1(N30C) M038~a1 x [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 275. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008068) — 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.