Position in chronology
MDP 17, 038
About this tablet
This is a proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa (modern southwest Iran), dated to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — one of the very earliest writing systems in the world, still completely undeciphered at the word level. Like hundreds of similar tablets from Susa, it records quantities of commodities or animals assigned to categories denoted by signs whose sounds and meanings we cannot yet read. The numerical notations (N01, N39B) are understood as a counting system, but what exactly is being counted remains unknown. It belongs to a body of administrative records that tell us complex institutional economies existed at Susa before any text can be fully read.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet lists several categories of goods or commodities — each identified by a sign or combination of signs whose meaning is still unknown — alongside numerical quantities. One entry records 1 unit plus 1 counted item; another records 2 counted items; two further entries record 1 each; and a final entry, with a partially damaged sign, records 3 counted items. The opening sign at the top likely identifies the document type or the institution responsible. Because proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered, we can read the numbers but not the words.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[Heading / document rubric: M157~a] [Line 1:] M388 — M219 — M048~k — M096 — M288 — M297 : 1(N01) 1(N39B) [Line 2:] M177 — M297 : 2(N39B) [Line 3:] |M175+M288| — M297 : 1(N39B) [Line 4:] M292~i — M297 : 1(N39B) [Line 5:] M004 — |M218+M320|[?] — x — M297 : 3(N39B)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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-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.