Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 4771
About this tablet
A small clay accounting tablet from Susa in southwestern Iran, written a little over five thousand years ago in the proto-Elamite script — a writing system that remains largely undeciphered. Even though we cannot pronounce or translate most of its signs, its structure is unmistakable: a heading, then a column of entries, each pairing a commodity or person sign with a quantity, and a single closing figure at the end that most likely functions as a total. Tablets like this one are the bookkeeping of an early bureaucracy at Susa, tracking rations, livestock or produce moving through an institutional household. The Louvre's Sb 15280 is a typical, humble example of the world's second-oldest writing tradition.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a short ledger. Under a heading sign, the scribe lists seven entries, each naming a commodity or account and giving its amount: the first, a compound entry whose middle signs are now rubbed away, is credited with 3 units; the next receives 1 unit plus two smaller measures; three further accounts get 1 unit each; one entry is too damaged to read; and the last is the largest — 2 units together with four subdivisions of decreasing size. A single figure stands at the bottom, apparently the total for the whole account. What the goods actually were, we cannot say: the script is still undeciphered.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) M401 (heading / label sign) M393~a M340 [x x x] M054 : 3(N01) M288 : 1(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N24) M054 : 1(N01) M265 : 1(N01) M354 : 1(N01) M286(?) — sign damaged M297~b : 2(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N24) 1(N30D) 1(N39C) (total / final entry) 1(N34) Rendered as a ledger, so far as the numerical notations can be read: Heading: M401. Entry: M393~a M340 [three illegible signs] M054 — 3 units (N01). Entry: M288 — 1 unit (N01), 2 (N39B), 1 (N24). Entry: M054 — 1 unit (N01). Entry: M265 — 1 unit (N01). Entry: M354 — 1 unit (N01). Entry: M286 (broken, reading uncertain). Entry: M297~b — 2 units (N01), 2 (N39B), 1 (N24), 1 (N30D), 1 (N39C). Closing figure: 1 (N34).
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
M401 , M393~a M340 x x x M054 , 3(N01) M288 , 1(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N24) M054 , 1(N01) M265 , 1(N01) M354 , 1(N01) M286#? M297~b , 2(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N24) 1(N30D) 1(N39C) 1(N34)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 4771. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009209) — 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.