Position in chronology
MDP 17, 328
About this tablet
This is a small administrative tablet from ancient Susa (in modern Iran), dating to the late Uruk period, roughly 3300–3100 BCE — among the very earliest written records in human history. It records quantities of a commodity or category of goods using the proto-Elamite/proto-cuneiform numerical system, where different sign shapes (circles, crescents, and wedges) represent different orders of magnitude. The repeated numerical clusters suggest a tally of multiple entries of similar quantities — probably rations, animals, or a commodity distributed under a single heading. The tablet is broken on multiple edges, and the full account cannot be recovered, but what survives shows the methodical repetition typical of early temple or palace accounting.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Each surviving line records what appears to be the same category of goods (marked by the sign M288, whose exact meaning is still unknown) followed by a quantity in the proto-cuneiform counting system — roughly equivalent to a medium-to-large round number repeated across five or six entries. The last line records a slightly smaller quantity. The right and left edges are broken away, so the full totals and any identifying labels for recipients or officials are lost. What remains is the skeleton of a careful inventory: the same commodity, counted in consistent amounts, entered line by line.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineM288 [commodity/category], 4(N39B) 1(N24) 1(N30C)# [...] M288 [commodity/category], 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)# [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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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.