Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 5196
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), dated to the Uruk period, around 3100–2900 BCE. The tablet records quantities of unknown commodities — the signs denoting the goods themselves have not yet been deciphered, as proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered as a whole. What is clear is the structure: a rubric sign at the top, several lines each pairing one or more commodity signs with numerical notations in the standard proto-Elamite system. This is the ancient bureaucratic record-keeping of one of the world's earliest urban civilizations, a near-contemporary of the earliest Sumerian tablets from Mesopotamia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet opens with a heading or category sign whose meaning is unknown. It then lists several entries: the first records a quantity of 1(N14) and 3(N01) units against a cluster of commodity or descriptor signs, some of which are damaged or illegible. The second entry records roughly [1(N14)?] and 3(N01) units of another (or the same) commodity. The third and fourth entries are simpler, recording 1(N01) unit and then 3(N14) plus 1(N01) units respectively, each tied to signs whose readings remain unknown. Because proto-Elamite script has not been deciphered, the commodities being counted cannot be named — only the numbers and the administrative structure of the record survive as meaningful information.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[Heading/rubric:] M157 [Line 1:] M325~d, M388, M314, [x x], M096, M297 — 1(N14) 3(N01) [Line 2:] M377~e, M347(?), M371 — [1(N14)?] 3(N01) [Line 3:] M254~c, M297 — 1(N01) [Line 4:] M297 — 3(N14) 1(N01)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M157 , M325~d M388 M314 x x M096 M297 , 1(N14) 3(N01) M377~e M347? M371 , [1(N14)?] 3(N01) M254~c M297 , 1(N01) M297 , 3(N14) 1(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 5196. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009296) — 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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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.