Position in chronology
MDP 06, 311
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, southwestern Iran), dating to around 3100–2900 BCE — one of the earliest writing systems in the world, and one that remains undeciphered. The tablet records quantities of commodities or categories of goods, each paired with numerical notations using the standard proto-Elamite counting system. The signs identify different item types, though their exact meanings cannot be read in the conventional sense because proto-Elamite script has not been phonetically decoded. It is a piece of early bureaucratic bookkeeping from a complex urban economy at Susa, roughly contemporary with the earliest Sumerian tablets at Uruk.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a list of commodities with their quantities, though the precise nature of the goods cannot be determined — proto-Elamite writing remains undeciphered. Each entry pairs one or more sign-groups (identifying a category or item) with a numeral. The totals range from single units up to larger counts: one entry records a quantity of about 35 plus a fractional amount. The beginning of the tablet is broken and several entries are damaged or lost; what survives is a partial accounting record, the kind a storeroom administrator might keep track of incoming or outgoing goods.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , [...] , [...] [...] , 1 |M370+M072+M370| , 1 M054 , 1 M288 , 1 + 1(N39B) + 1(N24) M124 M370 M024~a1 M371 , [...] M332~d? M024? M371 M376 M370 x , [...] x , 2 |M370+M046+M370|#? [...] , [...] [...] , 2(N39B) + 1(N24) M057~b , [...] M288 , 1 M218 M295~e M054 , [...] [...] M288#? , 35 + 4(N39B)
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) |M370+M072+M370| , 1(N01) M054 , 1(N01) M288 , 1(N01) 1(N39B) 1(N24) M124 M370 M024~a1 M371 , [...] M332~d? M024? M371 M376 M370 x , [...] x , 2(N01) |M370+M046+M370|#? [...] , [...] [...] , 2(N39B) 1(N24) M057~b , [...] M288 , 1(N01) M218 M295~e M054 , [...] [...] M288#? , 3(N14) 5(N01) 4(N39B)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 311. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008100) — 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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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.