Position in chronology
MDP 31, 033
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, southwestern Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — among the earliest writing found anywhere outside Mesopotamia. The tablet records quantities of an unidentified commodity (or several commodity sub-types) across multiple entries, culminating in a total at the bottom. Like almost all proto-Elamite documents, the signs remain undeciphered: we can read the numerals and recognise the structural pattern of an accounting record, but the names of the goods and the institutions involved cannot yet be translated into any known language. It is a vivid reminder that the world's second writing system is still largely a closed book.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is an account list. Under a heading whose meaning is unknown, a series of entries records quantities of several undetermined categories of goods or commodities — 2 of one type, 2 of another, then 5, 4, 1, 1, and 2 — distinguished by sign combinations that cannot yet be read. The final lines give a grand total expressed in the proto-Elamite numerical system. The rest of the content, including what was being counted and for whom, remains undeciphered.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[Heading/rubric: |M327+X|] M157 M305~f · M057~e · M263~b1 : 2 [...] M263~b1 : 2 [x] · M263 : 5 M387~a · M263~b1 : 4 [...] · M263~a : 1 M004 · |M218+M288~f| · M066 · M263~b1 : 1 M024 · M004 · M218 · M263~b1 · M038~a1 · M263~a : 2 [Total:] M243~eg : 4(N39B) 1(N24) 1(N30C) 1(N34)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
|M327+X| , M157 x M305~f M057~e M263~b1 , 2(N01) [...] M263~b1# , 2(N01) x M263 , 5(N01)# M387~a M263~b1 , 4(N01) [...] M263~a , 1(N01) M004 |M218+M288~f| M066 M263~b1# , 1(N01) M024 M004 M218 M263~b1# M038~a1 M263~a , 2(N01) M243~eg , 4(N39B) 1(N24) 1(N30C) 1(N34)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 31, 033. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009373) — 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.