Position in chronology
MDP 17, 038
About this tablet
A small accounting tablet in proto-Elamite, the still-undeciphered script used at Susa in southwestern Iran around 3000 BCE. It records several entries of a single measured commodity — very likely a grain product, given the numeral system used — each entry assigned to a different party or category written in signs we cannot yet read. The reverse carries rosette seal impressions, the ancient equivalent of an official stamp authorizing the account. Tablets like this show that Susa ran a bookkeeping bureaucracy fully parallel to that of Uruk in Mesopotamia, in its own independent script.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a sealed account sheet with five line items. Under a heading we cannot read, the clerk lists quantities of one commodity — probably a grain measure — against five different recipients or categories, each written in undeciphered proto-Elamite signs: the first gets 1 large unit plus 1 small measure, the next gets 2 small measures, then two entries of 1 measure each, and a final damaged entry of 3 measures. On the back, the responsible official rolled a cylinder seal bearing a rosette design to certify the record. The names and goods are lost to us; the arithmetic and the act of accounting are perfectly clear.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Heading) M157~a. M388 M219 M048~k M096 M288 M297 — 1 (N01 unit) 1 (N39B measure). M177 M297 — 2 (N39B measures) (numeral partly damaged). M175+M288 (compound sign) M297 — 1 (N39B measure). M292~i M297 — 1 (N39B measure). M004, M218+M320 (compound sign, damaged), ... M297 — 3 (N39B measures). (The proto-Elamite script is undeciphered: the sign groups before each numeral — likely designations of persons, offices, or commodity qualities — cannot be translated. The numerals and the recurring commodity sign M297 are the only elements whose function is secure.)
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
M157~a , M388 M219 M048~k M096 M288 M297 , 1(N01) 1(N39B) M177 M297 , 2(N39B)# |M175+M288| M297 , 1(N39B) M292~i M297 , 1(N39B) M004 |M218+M320|# x M297 , 3(N39B)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 038. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008236) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.