Position in chronology
MDP 17, 040
About this tablet
An accounting tablet from Susa in southwestern Iran, written around 3100–2900 BCE in proto-Elamite — a script that has never been deciphered. It is a ledger of eleven entries, each pairing a sign (probably naming a person, household, or category of goods or workers) with a quantity, most of them 140, one 220 and one 150. Although we cannot read what was being counted, the numbers themselves are fully understood, making this a rare case where the arithmetic of a lost civilization survives while its words remain silent.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a bookkeeping list with eleven line items. Each line names an account — a person, group, or commodity we can no longer identify — and records an amount next to it. Most accounts are credited with the same round figure, 140 units; one doubled entry gets 220, and another gets 150. Several of the account names are too worn to read at all, but every number is clearly punched into the clay. In modern terms: eleven parties or categories, mostly receiving or owing identical quantities of some counted good, totaled up by an administrator in Susa about five thousand years ago.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse (entry 1) M105a (undeciphered sign) — 1(N34) 4(N14) [= 140 in the decimal system] (entry 2) M385f (partially preserved) — 1(N34) 4(N14) [= 140] (entry 3) M254c — 1(N34) 4(N14) [= 140] (entry 4) [sign illegible] — 1(N34) 4(N14) [= 140] (entry 5) M377+M377 (doubled sign) with M054(?) — 2(N34) 2(N14) [= 220] (entry 6) [sign illegible] M260 (damaged) — 1(N34) 4(N14) [= 140] (entry 7) [sign illegible] — 1(N34) 4(N14) [= 140] (entry 8) [sign illegible] — 1(N34) 4(N14) [= 140] (entry 9) M304 (damaged) — 1(N34) 5(N14) [= 150] (entry 10) M365 — 1(N34) 4(N14) [= 140] (entry 11) M324f — 1(N34) 4(N14) [= 140]
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Engine notes
read from photo5 uncertain terms ↓
- N34 — High-order numeral in proto-cuneiform; its absolute value depends on which metrological system (sexagesimal, bisexagesimal, etc.) applies to the commodity in question — cannot be converted to a precise modern number without fuller context.
- N14 — Represents a higher-order unit, conventionally 10× N01 in most Uruk-period sexagesimal contexts, but value varies by commodity and system.
- M105~a, M385~f, M254~c, M304, M365, M324~f, M377, M054, M260~1 — Proto-cuneiform commodity/category signs identified by CDLI M-number codes. The precise referents of most of these signs remain uncertain or contested in scholarship; they likely denote categories of goods, animals, or institutional roles but cannot be translated into specific English words with confidence.
- |M377+M377| — A compound sign formed by repeating M377; such reduplication in proto-cuneiform sometimes indicates plurality or a related but distinct category. Meaning uncertain.
- x (unnamed signs) — Several entries have commodity signs listed only as 'x' in the transliteration, meaning they were unreadable or unidentified by the editing scholar, corresponding to damaged or eroded areas on the tablet surface.
Reasoning ↓
Visually, the tablet (Sb 22235) is shown in multiple views — obverse, reverse, and edges. The surface is cracked and heavily worn, with several deep fissures crossing both faces. On the obverse (upper central image), circular impressed numerals are clearly visible in clusters — groups of smaller round impressions (N14) and at least one larger impressed sign (N34) — consistent with the transliteration's repeated '1(N34) 4(N14)' pattern. Some sign-groups in the upper left of the obverse show linear wedge-like impressions that could correspond to the commodity signs (M105~a, M254~c, etc.), but the resolution and surface erosion make individual sign identification unreliable from the photo alone. On the reverse (lower image), further clusters of circular impressions are visible alongside what appear to be additional commodity signs, again consistent with the transliteration's second half. The repeated numerical formula across nearly all entries (1(N34) 4(N14)) is visually plausible given the uniformity of the impressed dot-clusters visible on both faces. Signs marked with '#' in the transliteration (damaged/uncertain) correspond to areas of the tablet that show visible cracking or surface loss in the photo. Because the proto-cuneiform commodity signs (M-numbers) are not yet fully deciphered and the photo resolution does not permit precise sign-by-sign verification, confidence is rated low. No standard anglicised royal names or divine names are relevant here.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 4.6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 15, 2026 · 1866 in / 1127 out tokens
Transliteration
M105~a , 1(N34) 4(N14) M385~f# , 1(N34) 4(N14)# M254~c , 1(N34) 4(N14) x , 1(N34) 4(N14) |M377+M377| M054#? , 2(N34) 2(N14) x M260~1 , 1(N34) 4(N14)# x , 1(N34) 4(N14) x , 1(N34) 4(N14) M304# , 1(N34) 5(N14) M365 , 1(N34) 4(N14) M324~f , 1(N34) 4(N14)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 040. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008238) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.