Position in chronology
MDP 06, 344
About this tablet
This is a proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — among the very earliest attempts at record-keeping in human history. The obverse carries impressed cuneiform-like signs recording commodities or categories alongside numerical notations, while the reverse bears a striking pictorial image of an animal (possibly a deer or ibex) alongside circular impressed numerals. The signs belong to the proto-Elamite script, which remains largely undeciphered, but the tablet clearly functions as an accounting document — tracking quantities of one or more goods under categorical headings. It is a vivid reminder that writing was invented not for literature or religion, but for bureaucratic bookkeeping.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet records several categories of goods or commodities — their exact nature is unknown because the script has not been fully deciphered — alongside numerical totals. One entry tallies 1 unit under one heading; a second entry also records 1 unit under a different combination of signs; a final line records a larger total of 8 units and 3 smaller units under another category marker. Several entries are broken and their full content is lost. The reverse side of the tablet bears a pictorial image, likely of an animal, alongside a cluster of impressed circular numerals.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineM203~c [heading/rubric sign] M387 x M329 M377~e M223 M218 x [...] , [...] [...] M004 x , 1(N14) M347 M243~n M128? M096 , 1(N14) M387 x M099? x M057? M329 [...] , [...] M288 , 8(N14) 3(N01)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M203~c# , M387# x M329# M377~e M223 M218# x [...] , [...] [...] M004 x , 1(N14) M347 M243~n M128#? M096 , 1(N14) M387# x M099#? x M057#? M329# [...] , [...] M288# , 8(N14) 3(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 344. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008126) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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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.