Position in chronology
MDP 06, 217
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, southwestern Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — among the very earliest written records anywhere in the world. It records quantities of goods or commodities under several category signs, using a numerical notation system that predates any deciphered script. Proto-Elamite tablets like this one were produced by an emerging bureaucracy to track resources across a complex urban economy, but the signs themselves remain undeciphered to this day, making each tablet a puzzle that scholars are still working to solve. Its survival in the Louvre offers a rare window into the administrative mind of one of the world's first literate societies.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet lists several categories of goods or commodities alongside their quantities. The header sign (a repeated compound sign) may mark an overarching category or rubric. Under it, entries record: one commodity pairing with a count of 13; a compound sign with another sign, totaling 5 units; a single sign category at 41 units plus a fractional measure; another entry at 13 units; a further category at 13 units; a paired sign entry at 13 units; and a final entry of the first commodity pairing, totaling approximately 1 large unit, 1 standard unit, and a fraction. Because proto-Elamite writing remains undeciphered, the specific goods and the names of any responsible officials cannot be read — only the numbers survive as meaningful data.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine|M218+M218| , M056~f M288 , 1(N14) 3(N01) |M054+M384~i+M054~i| M365 , 5(N01) M111~e , 4(N14) 1(N01) 3(N39B) M365 , 1(N14) 3(N01) M075~g , 1(N14) 3(N01) M387~l M348 , 1(N14) 3(N01) M056~f M288 , 1(N45) 1(N14)[?] 3(N39B)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
|M218+M218| , M056~f M288 , 1(N14) 3(N01) |M054+M384~i+M054~i| M365 , 5(N01) M111~e , 4(N14) 1(N01) 3(N39B) M365 , 1(N14) 3(N01) M075~g , 1(N14) 3(N01) M387~l M348 , 1(N14) 3(N01) M056~f M288 , 1(N45) 1(N14)# 3(N39B)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 217. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008016) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
Related tablets
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.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.