Position in chronology
MDP 06, 256
About this tablet
A badly fragmented proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, in southwestern Iran), dating to the Late Uruk period — roughly 3300–3000 BCE, among the very earliest writing in human history. The tablet records quantities of commodities or disbursements under various sign-categories, each line paired with a numerical notation in the N01/N08 system (small discrete counts). Because proto-cuneiform signs of this period cannot be read phonetically, the exact commodities and institutional context remain undeciphered, but the format — sign-group plus number — is the standard layout of early Susian accounting tablets. This object belongs to a group of Susa tablets that reveal how early administrators at this major urban center tracked goods using the same numerical and sign conventions known from contemporary Uruk in southern Iraq.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
What survives of this tablet is a series of entries, each pairing one or more administrative signs with a number — probably counts of a commodity or ration. The first legible entry records something under the sign M376, apparently totaling one large unit. The next line pairs M046 with M254~b for a count of one. A line with M218 and M250~ba is too broken to recover its number. Then comes an entry under M024, M033(?), and M376, totaling one large unit again. Several further entries follow the same pattern — sign group, then a quantity — but most are too damaged to read. The final line consists of two unidentified signs, and the rest is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...], [...] M376, [1(N08)?] M046 M254~b, 1(N01) M218 M250~ba [...], [...] [...] M024 M033(?) M376, 1(N08) M254~b1 M046 [...], [...] [...] M380~b M295~y(?) M263~1 M376, [1(N08)?] [...] M096(?), 1(N01)(?) [x x ...], [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] M376# , [1(N08)?] M046 M254~b# , 1(N01) M218 M250~ba [...] , [...] [...] M024# M033#? M376# , 1(N08)# M254~b1 M046# [...] , [...] [...] M380~b M295~y#? M263~1 M376 , [1(N08)?] [...] M096? , 1(N01)? x x [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 256. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008051) — 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.