Position in chronology
MDP 17, 328
About this tablet
A small Proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa in southwestern Iran, roughly 3100–2900 BCE, now in the Louvre. Six nearly identical lines each begin with the same sign (M288, perhaps a commodity or category heading) and record the same repeated quantity — four units of one measure plus one of a smaller and one or two of a smaller still. It is the kind of repetitive ration or allotment bookkeeping that characterises the very first writing in Iran; the script has never been fully deciphered, so only the numbers can be read with confidence.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet is a ledger of six near-identical entries. Each line is headed by the same sign (M288) and then lists the same figures: four of the large unit, one of the middle unit, and one or two of the small unit. The first line has one small unit, the next four have two, and the last line lacks the middle unit and has two small units. The right-hand side of every line is broken away, so whatever came after the numbers — a recipient or a commodity — is lost. The reverse carries only a single incised mark.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse (numerical entries, Proto-Elamite): (1) M288 — 4 (N39B), 1 (N24), 1 (N30C) [...] (2) M288 — 4 (N39B), 1 (N24), 2 (N30C) [...] (3) [...] — 4 (N39B), 1 (N24), 2 (N30C) [...] (4) [...] — 4 (N39B), 1 (N24), 2 (N30C) [...] (5) [...] — 4 (N39B), 1 (N24), 2 (N30C) [...] (6) [...] — 4 (N39B), 2 (N30C) [...] (Remainder of tablet broken.) Reverse: a single incised sign/seal-like marking; no transliterated text.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
M288# , 4(N39B) 1(N24) 1(N30C)# [...] M288# , 4(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C)# [...] [...] , 4(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C)# [...] [...] , 4(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C)# [...] [...] , 4(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C) [...] [...] , 4(N39B) 2(N30C)# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 328. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008526) — 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.