Position in chronology
MDP 06, 299
About this tablet
An archaic administrative tablet from Susa (in modern Iran), dated to the Uruk period — roughly 3300–3100 BCE, among the very earliest moments of writing in human history. The tablet records numerical quantities associated with a recurring category sign (M288), almost certainly tracking commodities or rations in a proto-literate accounting system. The numerals belong to the complex, context-dependent notation systems characteristic of Uruk-period administration, where different number sequences could mean different things depending on what was being counted. The tablet survives in multiple fragments, now held at the Louvre, and its partial state leaves many entries incomplete.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet is a numerical ledger, too fragmentary to read in full. What survives records several entries, each grouping quantities of different numerical denominations under a repeated category marker — likely the same commodity or type of goods listed multiple times. One entry reads roughly: [commodity M288] — quantities 1(N45), 4(N14), and more now lost. Another gives 9(N14), 4(N01), 3(N39B). A further line records 2(N01), 3(N39B), 1(N24), 2(N30C). The final legible entry closes with M288 and 3(N34). The beginning and end of most lines are broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] [...] 1(N24) 1(N30C) 1(N30D) 1(N39C) M288 , 1(N45) 4(N14) [...] [...] M288 , 9(N14) 4(N01) 3(N39B) [...] [...] [...] 2(N01) 3(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C) [...] [...] [...] 1(N30C) 1(N30D) 1(N39C) M288 , 3(N34)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] 1(N24)# 1(N30C) 1(N30D) 1(N39C) M288 , 1(N45) 4(N14)# [...] [...] M288 , 9(N14) 4(N01) 3(N39B) [...] [...] , [...] 2(N01)# 3(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C) [...] [...] , [...] 1(N30C)# 1(N30D) 1(N39C) M288 , 3(N34)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 299. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008088) — 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.