Position in chronology
MDP 06, 303
About this tablet
This is a small fragment of a proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa, in modern Iran, dating to the Uruk period (roughly the late 4th millennium BCE) — one of the earliest writing systems in the world, alongside early Sumerian cuneiform, and one that remains largely undeciphered today. The surviving lines are a bookkeeping list: each entry pairs an unreadable proto-Elamite sign (probably indicating a commodity, animal, or category) with a numerical notation recorded by impressed marks, ending in what looks like a summary or total line. We cannot say what was actually being counted — grain, livestock, textiles, or something else — because the proto-Elamite script has never been fully decoded, but the tablet is a vivid trace of an accountant's ledger from one of history's first bureaucracies.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This broken clay tablet, now in several pieces, is an ancient accounting record from Susa written in the still-undeciphered proto-Elamite script. It seems to list a series of entries, each combining an unknown sign — perhaps naming a commodity, animal, or category of goods — with a count marked by small impressed numerals. The first entry records a quantity of 1 unit; the middle lines are largely broken away, preserving only fragments of signs and numbers; and the final line, marked with a recurring sign that may function as a total or category heading, tallies several different numeral types together (1, 1, 2, and 1 of various denominations). Because the script cannot yet be read, we can describe the tablet's structure — a short list of counted items ending in a summary — but not translate its actual content.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] M263~e(?) — 1(N01) x [...] — [...] [...] M269~a3(?)! — 1(N30C) 1(N30D)(?) [...] — [...] 1(N30C) M288(?) — 1(N01) 1(N24) 2(N30C) 1(N30D)
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
[...] M263~e#? , 1(N01) x [...] , [...] [...] M269~a3#?! , 1(N30C) 1(N30D)#? [...] , [...] 1(N30C)# M288#? , 1(N01) 1(N24) 2(N30C)# 1(N30D)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 303. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008092) — 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.