Position in chronology
MDP 17, 043
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa in southwestern Iran, written around 3100–2900 BCE in a script that remains largely undeciphered. It is a simple distribution or holdings list: thirteen surviving entries (a few more are lost at the broken start), each naming an individual or household with a cluster of signs and crediting them with exactly one unit of a commodity written with the compound sign M217+M388, with the grand total of 17 stamped on the otherwise blank reverse. We cannot read the names or identify the commodity, but the bookkeeping logic — one each, then a checked total — is perfectly clear, a vivid reminder that accounting was writing's first job.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a checklist. After a broken opening, thirteen parties are listed one after another — each identified by a short string of signs we can no longer read, and each assigned exactly one unit of the same commodity (one entry uses a slightly different variant of the commodity sign). Two entries are too damaged to make out. On the back, the accountant added it all up: seventeen units in total, covering both variants of the commodity — which tells us about four entries have been lost from the broken beginning of the list.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) [... beginning broken; several entries lost ...] (the one designated) M387-M388 M057a-M029b-M057a: 1 (unit of) M217+M124 (the one designated) [...]: [1] (unit of) M217+M388 (the one designated) M390-M128-M096: 1 (unit of) M217+M388 (the one designated) M254a-M058-M058-M057a: 1 (unit of) M217+M388 (the one designated) M124-M386a-M386a-M066: 1 (unit of) M217+M388 (the one designated) M124-M390-M338b-M066: 1 (unit of) M217+M388 (the one designated) M240e-M347-M371: 1 (unit of) M217+M388 (the one designated) M124-M218-M032-M096: 1 (unit of) M217+M388 (the one designated) M124-M218-M219-M218: 1 (unit of) M217+M388 (the one designated) M066-M352n-M096+M139: 1 (unit of) M217+M388 (the one designated) M218b-M372: 1 (unit of) M217+M388 (the one designated) [two signs illegible]: 1 (unit of) M217+M388 [...]: 1 (unit of) M217+M388 (reverse — total:) M217+M388 (and) M217+M124 — total: 17 (1 N14 + 7 N01)
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.
Transliteration
[...] , M387~hb# M388 M057~a M029~b M057~a |M217+M124| , 1(N01) |M217+M388| , [1(N01)] M390# M128 M096 |M217+M388| , 1(N01) M254~a M058 M058 M057~a |M217+M388| , 1(N01) M124 M386~a M386~a M066 |M217+M388| , 1(N01) M124 M390 M338~b M066 |M217+M388| , 1(N01) M240~e M347 M371 |M217+M388| , 1(N01) M124# M218# M032 M096 |M217+M388| , 1(N01) M124 M218 M219 M218 |M217+M388| , 1(N01) M066 M352~n |M096+M139| |M217+M388| , 1(N01) M218~b M372 |M217+M388| , 1(N01)# x x |M217+M388|# , 1(N01)# [...] |M217+M388|# , 1(N01)# |M217+M388|# |M217+M124| , 1(N14) 7(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 043. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008241) — 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.