Position in chronology
MDP 17, 433
About this tablet
An accounting tablet from Susa in southwestern Iran, written around 3100–2900 BCE in Proto-Elamite — a script that has never been deciphered. It records several entries, each pairing groups of signs (probably commodities, people, or institutions) with quantities: 3, 24, 30, and 5 units survive. Though we cannot read what was being counted, the tablet is a witness to one of humanity's earliest bookkeeping systems, developed independently of, but in contact with, the invention of writing in Mesopotamia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a ledger with a heading followed by seven line-items, each listing an untranslatable string of signs — likely goods or the people responsible for them — against a tallied amount. Where the numbers survive, they read: one item counted at 3 units; another at 24; another at 30; and a final entry at 5. Several entries have lost their quantities or their descriptive signs to breakage, and the tablet itself is cracked and worn, so parts of the account are gone for good. We can see the arithmetic of an ancient office at Susa, but not what was being counted.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Heading) M157. (Entry 1) [compound sign] M195+M038a, M301(?), M056f, M206d1, [sign lost] — [quantity lost]. (Entry 2) [sign lost], M066(?), M024(?), M001, [sign lost], M387, M218 — 3 units (3 N01). (Entry 3) M195d, [sign lost] [...] — [quantity lost]. (Entry 4) [...] [compound sign] M377+M320+M377 — 24 units (2 N14, 4 N01). (Entry 5) M097h(?), M066, [sign lost] [...] — [quantity lost]. (Entry 6) M388, M037, M102k1, M218b, M066 — 30 units (3 N14). (Entry 7) [sign lost] [...] — 5 units (5 N01). (Note: the sign designations M-numbers refer to the standard Proto-Elamite sign list; the script is undeciphered, so the commodities and persons/institutions denoted cannot be translated. Only the numerals are securely readable: entries of 3, 24, 30, and 5 units in the decimal/sexagesimal counting system.)
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
M157 , |M195+M038~a|# M301#? M056~f M206~d1# x , [...] x M066#? M024#? M001# x M387 M218 , 3(N01) M195~d x [...] , [...] [...] |M377+M320+M377|# , 2(N14) 4(N01) M097~h#? M066# x [...] , [...] M388 M037 M102~k1 M218~b M066 , 3(N14)# x [...] , 5(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 433. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008631) — 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.