Position in chronology
MDP 06, 353
About this tablet
A proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from Susa (ancient Elam, in what is now southwestern Iran), dating to roughly 3200–3000 BCE — among the very earliest writing in the world. The tablet records quantities of commodities or institutional categories under a heading sign, with each line listing a different grouping and its associated count, culminating in a totalling line. Like its Mesopotamian contemporaries, this document is purely administrative: a scribe tracking allocations, distributions, or inventories at an early urban centre. Because proto-cuneiform from Susa (sometimes called 'proto-Elamite' in its local variant) remains largely undeciphered, the precise commodities and categories cannot yet be identified, but the accounting structure — individual entries summed to a grand total — is unmistakably clear.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet opens with a heading or classification marker whose meaning is not yet known. Below it, seven or eight separate entries each list a combination of sign-groups — almost certainly representing different types of goods, animals, or institutional categories — alongside small counts (1, 2, or 3 units each). One entry alone carries a count of 13. The final line records the overall total. In short: a careful inventory, tallied up at the bottom, kept by a scribe at one of the world's earliest cities. What exactly was being counted remains a mystery, because the script has not yet been fully deciphered.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[Heading/rubric: M157] M305+M388+M218+M259~2+M371+M033+M066+M346 , 3 M103~3+M371+M386~a+M338~a+M346 , 2 M145~d+M103~3+M145~a+M097~h+M004+M218+M346 , 2 M009+M103~3+M146+M066+M096+M346 , 2 M103~3+M387+M048~c+M320+M346 , 2 M209~d+M346 , 1 M124+M325~e+M218[?]+M038~e[?]+M346 , 1 M346 , 13 M131~e+M001 [Total:] 1(N34)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M157 M305 M388 M218 M259~2 M371 M033 M066 M346 , 3(N01) M103~3 M371 M386~a M338~a M346 , 2(N01) M145~d M103~3 M145~a M097~h M004 M218 M346 , 2(N01) M009 M103~3 M146 M066 M096 M346 , 2(N01) M103~3 M387 M048~c M320 M346 , 2(N01) M209~d M346 , 1(N01) M124 M325~e M218#? M038~e#? M346 , 1(N01) M346 , 1(N14) 3(N01) M131~e M001 1(N34)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 353. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008135) — 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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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.