Position in chronology
MDP 06, 356
About this tablet
This is a proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (in modern Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — one of the world's earliest writing systems, and one that remains undeciphered at the word level. The tablet records quantities of commodities or livestock in a columnar accounting format, with a heading sign at the top and a numerical total in the final line. Tablets like this were the bookkeeping tools of a large and complex redistributive economy centered on Susa's central institutions, tracking goods moving through storage or distribution. The signs themselves are still not fully readable as a language, making every entry a partial puzzle — we can read the numbers, but the commodity words remain opaque.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet opens with a category heading whose meaning is unknown. It then lists several entries, each pairing an unreadable commodity sign-complex with a quantity — mostly 5 or 1. The final line records a numerical total using a combination of higher-order numerical signs. The commodity words themselves have not been deciphered; what survives is essentially a structured count: so many units of this thing, one of that thing, five of another, with the running total impressed at the end. Several entries and signs are damaged or broken, and parts of the right side of the obverse are lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[Heading/rubric sign M157] [Commodity complex: |M195+M057| M149~a M320 (×) M312~f (×) M297~b(?)] — 5 [Commodity complex: |M343~h+M354| M305 M388 M347 M097~h M004 M218 M263] — 1 [Entry: |M039~ca+1(N30D)|] — 5 [Commodity: M066 M259(?) M332~d M218 M263~b] — 1 [Entry: |M039~c+1(N30D)|] — 5 [Commodity: M103~1 M111~a(?) M263~b] — 1 [Entry: M036] — 5 [Entry: M297(?)] — 5, [subtotal/total:] 2(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C)(?)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M157# , |M195+M057|# M149~a M320 x M312~f x M297~b# , 5(N01) |M343~h+M354| M305 M388 M347 M097~h M004 M218 M263 , 1(N01) |M039~ca+1(N30D)| , 5(N01) M066 M259# M332~d M218 M263~b , 1(N01) |M039~c+1(N30D)| , 5(N01) M103~1 M111~a#? M263~b , 1(N01) M036 , 5(N01) M297#? , 5(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C)#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 356. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008138) — 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.