MDP 06, 305

~3000 BCE·Uruk Period·P008094

About this tablet

A small administrative tablet from ancient Susa (in modern Iran), dating to the Uruk period — roughly 3200–3000 BCE — written in proto-Elamite, one of the world's earliest undeciphered writing systems. It records numerical quantities alongside category or commodity signs whose exact meanings are not yet known, in a format typical of early accounting documents. Tablets like this were used to track allocations of goods — perhaps grain, animals, or labour — in the complex urban institutions of the ancient Near East. Proto-Elamite has never been fully deciphered, so the commodity being counted here remains unknown, but the structure of the entries is unmistakably that of a ledger.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

This tablet opens with a heading or category sign (M157) whose meaning we do not yet know. It then lists several entries combining commodity or category signs with numerical notations: one group totals 4 units plus 1 partial unit; another records 1 unit, 1 sub-unit, and 2 partial units under a different category marker; a further entry has 1 unit under a damaged or unclear sign; and the final preserved line records 3 units. Several lines are too broken or damaged to read. The full commodity and the identity of the institution behind these accounts are lost to us.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Low confidence

Line 1: [Sign M157] (heading/rubric) Line 2: [...] [M157+M288 compound] [...] Line 3: [M328~b] [M103~1] [M286?] [...] Line 4: [...] 4(N39B) 1(N30C)[?] Line 5: [M219?] 1(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C)[?] Line 6: [...] [x] 1(N39B)[?] [...] Line 7: [...] 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

M157# ,
[...] |M157+M288| , [...]
M328~b M103~1 M286#? , [...]
[...] , [...] 4(N39B) 1(N30C)#
M219#? , 1(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C)#
[...] x , 1(N39B)# [...]
[...] , 3(N39B)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 305. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008094) — 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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