Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 4786
About this tablet
A small clay account tablet from Susa in southwestern Iran, written around 3100–2900 BCE in the still-undeciphered Proto-Elamite script. The scribe listed a series of entries — each a sign or pair of signs followed by a number — and then closed with a summary line adding the amounts together. We can read the accounting perfectly well (the numerals belong to known Proto-Elamite counting systems) even though we cannot say what commodity or which people are named: the arithmetic survives where the language does not.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Under a single heading, the scribe itemises eight or nine allotments, each naming a recipient or commodity class and setting a figure beside it: four units against the first entry, one large unit plus two small against the second, one measure of a different kind against the third, single units for two further named items, one more for an entry now broken away, and so on down to a partly damaged line worth one unit plus one measure. The last line is the tally: two units, four measures, and several fractional amounts, gathered under the same classifying sign that runs through the list. The reverse and edges carry only further impressed numerals, and several readings are damaged.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Heading) M157~a M038~i(?) M141 M086 |M036+1(N24)| — 4(N01) |M036+1(N30C)| — 1(N14) 2(N01) M140~a M288 — 1(N39B) M262~b — 1(N01) M262~ba — 1(N01)# [...] — 1(N01) M248~a M002 — 1(N30D) |M343~h+1(N30C)| M037 M288 — 1(N01) 1(N39B)# (Total) M288 — 2(N01) 4(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C) 1(N30D)
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 photo12 uncertain terms ↓
- M157~a — Unidentified heading or category sign; function not yet established for the Susa corpus.
- M038~i? — Reading marked uncertain in the transliteration ('?'); sign identity provisional.
- M288 — Appears multiple times; likely a qualifier or commodity determinative, but semantic value not established.
- M262~b / M262~ba — Two variant forms of the same sign; commodity reference unknown.
- N39B — Elongated impressed numeral; commodity-specific metrological value debated — could relate to capacity or area measure.
- N14 — Higher-order numeral; conventionally ~10× N01 in sexagesimal system, but varies by commodity. Value here uncertain.
- N24 — Medium-order numeral sign; hierarchical value depends on which metrological system is in use for this commodity.
- N30C / N30D — Sub-variants of the N30 numeral series; their exact values and commodity associations are not fully resolved.
- M140~a M288 — Combination of two signs; possibly a compound category designation, but not deciphered.
- M248~a M002 — Sign combination; M002 sometimes appears as a determinative or qualifier in proto-cuneiform, but meaning here is uncertain.
- |M343~h+1(N30C)| M037 M288 — Complex compound sign with embedded numeral; the ligature structure suggests a specific institutional or commodity category, but remains unidentified.
- BA (implied in disbursement structure) — Later Sumerian 'ba' (to distribute/allot) is sometimes read into proto-cuneiform contexts structurally, but this is an extrapolation; not a secure decipherment for the Uruk period.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows a small, roughly square clay tablet — the museum number 'Sb 15292' is clearly legible on the left edge, and the accession number '4786' appears in red on the top edge, confirming the object identity. The obverse (upper image) bears dense proto-cuneiform impressions across approximately ten lines; the wedge impressions and circular/oval numeral punches are clearly visible. Individual signs are difficult to match one-to-one with the transliteration signs at this resolution and given surface cracking and partial erosion, but the overall layout — category signs in the left column, numerals to the right — is consistent with the transliteration structure provided. The reverse (lower image) shows only a faint seal impression and what appear to be a few edge numerals on the left margin; the face is otherwise blank, consistent with a single-face accounting tablet. A diagonal crack runs across both faces. Because proto-cuneiform from Susa (the 'Proto-Elamite adjacent' or Susa-Uruk corpus) is not fully deciphered, and because the sign identifications rely on the scholar-provided transliteration which itself uses uncertain sign readings (marked with '?' and '#'), confidence is assessed as low. No standard English translation of these ideographic signs is possible beyond their structural/numerical roles.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 4.6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 15, 2026 · 2428 in / 1240 out tokens
Transliteration
M157~a , M038~i? M141 M086 |M036+1(N24)| , 4(N01) |M036+1(N30C)| , 1(N14) 2(N01) M140~a M288 , 1(N39B) M262~b , 1(N01) M262~ba , 1(N01)# [...] , 1(N01) M248~a M002 , 1(N30D) |M343~h+1(N30C)| M037 M288 , 1(N01) 1(N39B)# M288 , 2(N01) 4(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C) 1(N30D)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 4786. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009223) — 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.