Position in chronology
MDP 17, 271
About this tablet
A broken corner of a clay accounting tablet from Susa in southwestern Iran, written around 3100–2900 BCE in the still-undeciphered proto-Elamite script. Each surviving line pairs a commodity or category sign with a quantity impressed by a round or wedge-shaped stylus — the standard layout of the world's earliest bookkeeping. Because proto-Elamite writing has never been read, we can follow the arithmetic but not name the goods: an ancient ledger whose numbers are legible while its words remain silent.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
What survives is a short list of entries, each naming something and then counting it: one unit against a lost heading, then two units, then one measure of a commodity marked by a repeated sign, then two measures plus a smaller unit of the same thing. A further line is too damaged to read, followed by three measures of another item and a final single unit. The commodity signs themselves cannot be translated — the script has never been deciphered — so we are left with an accountant's tally whose quantities are clear and whose subject is not. The rest of the tablet is broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) 1. [...] — 1(N30C) 2. M387~ef — [...] 3. [...] — 2(N30C) 4. M387~ef M297 — 1(N39B) 5. M387~ef M297 — 2(N39B) 1(N24) 6. M387 M128~de (one unread sign) [...] — [...] 7. M057 |M296+M296| M010~2 — 3(N39B) 8. M387 M057~b M002 — 1(N30C) (No text preserved on the reverse or edges; the surviving faces are blank or broken away.)
Our translation engine — Opus 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 photo8 uncertain terms ↓
- M387~ef — A proto-Elamite / proto-cuneiform ideographic sign. Its commodity reference is not definitively deciphered; possibly refers to a category of goods or an institutional entity. The '~ef' variant notation indicates a specific graphical sub-type.
- M297 — Undeciphered ideographic sign; appears in combination with M387 suggesting a compound designation, perhaps a subcategory of commodity or a qualifier.
- M128~de — Variant of sign M128; commodity or institutional reference unknown. The 'x' following it in the transliteration indicates an unidentified additional sign.
- M057 |M296+M296| M010~2 — A compound sign group; |M296+M296| indicates two M296 signs written together as a ligature. The commodity or category this group represents is not established.
- N39B — An elongated impressed numerical sign whose commodity-specific metrological value is debated; may indicate area, capacity, or another measure depending on context.
- N30C — A large impressed circular numeral; its value in the relevant counting system is context-dependent and not fully resolved for this tablet.
- N24 — A medium-order numerical sign; value depends on which metrological system applies to the commodity being counted here.
- M387 M057~b# M002 — The '#' after M057~b signals an uncertain reading of that sign in the transliteration. M002 is a common proto-Elamite sign but its semantic content remains undeciphered.
Reasoning ↓
Visual examination of the photograph: The main fragment (upper center, labeled Sb 22433) shows a roughly triangular clay tablet, significantly damaged with breakage along the left and lower edges. The surface preserves impressed numerical signs — clearly visible are multiple circular/semicircular impressions consistent with the N-type numerical system characteristic of proto-Elamite/Uruk-period tablets; clusters of what appear to be large round impressions (N30C type) and elongated impressed signs (consistent with N39B) are discernible in the upper and middle registers. The wedge-pattern signs are present but the resolution and surface erosion make individual commodity signs (M387, M297, M057, etc.) very difficult to confirm visually. The lower fragment shown in the photograph appears to be the reverse or a separate detached piece, largely plain clay with a modern museum accession label. The transliteration aligns with what is visually suggested by the numerical impressions, though the commodity/lexical signs (M-series) cannot be individually verified at this resolution. The fragmentary state and the undeciphered nature of many proto-Elamite signs (M-series) make a confident full translation impossible.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 4.6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 15, 2026 · 1893 in / 1074 out tokens
Transliteration
[...] , 1(N30C) M387~ef , [...] [...] , 2(N30C) M387~ef M297 , 1(N39B) M387~ef M297 , 2(N39B) 1(N24) M387 M128~de x [...] , [...] M057 |M296+M296| M010~2 , 3(N39B) M387 M057~b# M002 , 1(N30C)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 271. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008469) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-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.