Position in chronology
MDP 06, 285
About this tablet
This is a Proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, southwestern Iran), dated to the Uruk period, roughly 3200–3000 BCE. It records quantities of commodities — each line pairs one or more undeciphered category or commodity signs with a numerical notation, almost certainly tracking disbursements or allocations of goods within an institutional economy. Proto-Elamite script has never been fully deciphered, so the specific commodities and recipients remain unknown, but the structure is unmistakably that of a ledger. Tablets like this are among the earliest written records anywhere in the world, testifying to the emergence of complex accounting systems in ancient Iran at the same moment writing was developing in Mesopotamia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet is a list of entries, each recording one or more commodity categories alongside a quantity — mostly single units, with a couple of larger-count entries. The specific goods and their recipients cannot be read because the script has not been deciphered, but the structure is clear: someone was tracking allocations, probably within a temple or palace storehouse. Several lines are broken away at the beginning or end, and a handful of the category signs are damaged or uncertain. What survives is essentially a partial page of institutional bookkeeping from one of the earliest writing systems ever used.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] [...] 1 (unit) 1 (large unit) [sign] M097~h M218~b M250~ba[?] [...] [...] [...] M288[?] | 2 (large units) 1 (large unit) [sign] M242~b M003~b | 1 (unit) [...] [...] M288 | 1 (unit) M219 M295~b[?] M220 M054 | 1 (unit) [...] M370 M124 | 1 (unit) M203~a M124 | 1 (unit) [...] | [...] 1 (unit) M288 | 1 (unit) M124[?] M009[?] [...] | [...] [...] | 1 (large unit) M218[?] [...] | [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] 1(N01)# 1(N24) x M097~h M218~b M250~ba#? [...] , [...] [...] M288#? , 2(N39B) 1(N24) x M242~b# M003~b , 1(N01) [...] [...] M288 , 1(N01) M219# M295~b#? M220 M054 , 1(N01)# [...] M370 M124 , 1(N01) M203~a M124 , 1(N01)# [...] , [...] 1(N01) M288 , 1(N01) M124#? M009#? [...] , [...] [...] , 1(N24) M218# [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 285. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008077) — 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.