Position in chronology
MDP 06, 358
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern southwestern Iran), dating to approximately 3100–2900 BCE — one of the very earliest writing systems anywhere in the world, still undeciphered. The tablet records numerical quantities associated with a series of signs that likely denote commodities or institutional categories, organized under a heading or rubric at the top. Like thousands of similar tablets from Susa and the Uruk world, this is bureaucratic accounting: tracking goods, animals, or labor in a form that a temple or palace official could file and audit. Its survival in the Louvre makes it part of a vast corpus that scholars continue to work to decode.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A heading or document-type marker introduces this record. The first entry lists a complex commodity or category (rendered by several signs whose meanings remain unknown) with a total quantity: 1 large unit, 2 medium-large units, 8 medium units, and 1 small unit. A second entry, under a different category marker, records 1 large unit, 1 medium unit, 2 fractional units, and 1 smaller fraction. A third line carries a paired sign of unknown function. A final tally section records 2 large units and further fractional amounts, closing with 2 small units. The exact goods or commodities involved cannot be identified, as the sign system 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] [Compound sign M195+M057] [M388] [M390] [M219] [M218] [M288]: 1(N34) 2(N45) 8(N14) 1(N01) [Compound sign M106+M288] [M288]: 1(N34) 1(N14) 2(N39B) 1(N24) [Compound sign M175+M175] [M288]: 2(N34) 2(N45) [9(N14)?] 1(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N01)
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| M388 M390 M219 M218 M288 , 1(N34) 2(N45) 8(N14) 1(N01) |M106+M288| M288 , 1(N34) 1(N14) 2(N39B) 1(N24) |M175+M175| M288 , 2(N34) 2(N45) 9(N14)# 1(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 358. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008140) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
Related tablets
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.