Position in chronology
MDP 06, 393
About this tablet
A small, damaged proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern southwest Iran), dating to roughly 3200–2900 BCE — among the very earliest writing produced outside Mesopotamia. The tablet records quantities of unknown commodities grouped under undeciphered sign-categories, almost certainly tracking goods received or disbursed within a large institutional household or storehouse. The final impressed numeral may represent a grand total for the account. Proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered, so while the numerical structure is clear, the nature of the commodities themselves cannot yet be identified with certainty.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is too damaged and its script too poorly understood to give a fully fluent modern rendering, but the structure is clear: several categories of goods (whose names we cannot yet read) are listed with quantities — 3 units of one commodity, then 2 units and a fraction of another, then single units of two more, then 4 units of a further category. A subtotal of 7 and a fraction appears near the end, followed by 4 units of another category, and the tablet closes with what appears to be a grand total of one large unit. It reads, in essence, like a warehouse receipt: 'Category A: 3. Category B: 2 and a bit. Category C: 1. Category D: 1. [damaged entries]. Running total: 7 and a fraction. Category E: 4. Grand total: 1 [large unit].'
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[damaged/lost] ... M376, 3(N01) M291 M380~b M371 [M376?], 2(N01) 1(N08) M029~a? M054? M376, 1(N01) M039~a M103? M376, [1(N01)] [x] [x] M136~r? M203~a, 4(N01)? [damaged/lost] M376?, 7(N01) 1(N08A) M203~a, 4(N01)? 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
x , M376 , 3(N01) M291 M380~b M371 [M376?] , 2(N01) 1(N08) M029~a#? M054#? M376 , 1(N01) M039~a M103#? M376 , [1(N01)] x x M136~r# M203~a , 4(N01)# x M376# , 7(N01) 1(N08A) M203~a , 4(N01)# 1(N34)#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 393. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008173) — 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.