Position in chronology
MDP 17, 240
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa in southwestern Iran, written a little after 3000 BCE — one of the very oldest writing systems on earth, and one still largely undeciphered. Its numbers can be read with confidence (units, tens, and a separate grain-measure sign), but the words beside them cannot: the sign shapes are catalogued only by number, not by sound or meaning. What survives is the skeleton of a ledger — a short column of entries, each pairing an unread commodity or recipient designation with a counted amount. Tablets like this were the bookkeeping of Susa's early institutions, and they show that administration, not literature, drove the invention of writing here.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a page from an accountant's ledger, and we can still read the figures even though we cannot read the words. The first entry is broken away; the next records 3 units. Then come single-line items: 10 units against one designation, 1 unit, 2 units, 3 units, then 12 units (a ten plus two), an entry whose figure is lost, 2 measures of grain, 1 unit, and another 1 unit. The last surviving line, with its label broken off, records 3 units and 2 grain-measures — possibly a subtotal. The back of the tablet was left blank.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 1. [...] ... |M377~e+M377~e| M388 M242~n M295~yb(?) M073(?) [...] — [quantity lost] 2. [...] — 3(N01) 3. M254~a M372 — 1(N14) [= 10 units] 4. M032 M387 M218 M288(?) — 1(N01) 5. M206~d M288 — 2(N01)(?) 6. [...] M253(?) M301 |M296+M296| — 3(N01)(?) 7. M146(?) M372 M288 — 1(N14) 2(N01) [= 12 units] 8. M387 M037~a [...] — [quantity lost] 9. [...] ... M009 M371 — 2(N39B) 10. M263~a M387~ef M288 — 1(N01) 11. M124(?) M218(?) M259 M371 M223~d — 1(N01) 12. [...] — 3(N01) 2(N39B) Reverse: uninscribed (blank surface; modern museum markings only).
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
[...] x |M377~e+M377~e| M388 M242~n M295~yb#? M073#? [...] , [...] [...] , 3(N01) M254~a M372 , 1(N14) M032 M387 M218 M288# , 1(N01) M206~d M288 , 2(N01)# [...] M253# M301 |M296+M296| , 3(N01)# M146# M372 M288 , 1(N14) 2(N01) M387 M037~a [...] , [...] [...] x M009 M371 , 2(N39B) M263~a M387~ef M288 , 1(N01) M124#? M218# M259 M371 M223~d , 1(N01) [...] , 3(N01) 2(N39B)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 240. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008438) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
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.