Position in chronology
MDP 06, 354
About this tablet
This is a proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern southwestern Iran), dated to the Uruk period, roughly 3100–2900 BCE. It records quantities of commodities or categories of goods distributed or tallied under several sign-group headings, each followed by a numerical notation in the N14 unit system. Proto-Elamite remains undeciphered as a language, so the signs cannot be read as words — only their numerical and structural logic is understood. The tablet is a rare and early example of the bookkeeping tradition that developed simultaneously with Sumerian proto-cuneiform in Mesopotamia, showing that complex administrative record-keeping emerged independently or in close contact across a wide region.
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 sign of unknown meaning. It then lists a series of commodity or category entries — each identified by one or more undeciphered signs — with quantities recorded beside them: one unit of the first entry, one of the second, one of the third, three of the fourth, three of the fifth, three of the sixth, two of the seventh, two of the eighth. The final line records a larger quantity: one higher-order unit plus six standard units. The exact goods and the names of the people or institutions involved cannot be read, as the script remains undeciphered.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineM157 [heading/rubric sign] M388 M096 × M009 M259~1 M218 M288 , 1(N14) M352~n M066 , 1(N14)[?] M048~i M218 M219 , 1(N14) M219 M387 M218 , 3(N14) M057~a M240 M386~a M240 , 3(N14) M080~a M066 , 3(N14) M218 M295~c[?] M218 , 2(N14) M097~f[?] M218~b[?] M250~ba M263 , 2(N14) M288[?] , 1(N45) 6(N14)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M157 , M388 M096 x M009 M259~1 M218# M288 , 1(N14) M352~n M066# , 1(N14)#? M048~i M218 M219 , 1(N14) M219 M387 M218 , 3(N14) M057~a M240 M386~a M240 , 3(N14) M080~a M066 , 3(N14) M218 M295~c#? M218 , 2(N14) M097~f? M218~b#? M250~ba M263 , 2(N14) M288#? , 1(N45)# 6(N14)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 354. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008136) — 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.