Position in chronology
MDP 06, 320
About this tablet
This is a proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), dated to roughly 3100–2900 BCE, during the Uruk period. It records quantities of undeciphered commodity signs alongside numerical notations — the standard format for proto-Elamite economic accounting. Proto-Elamite script remains largely undeciphered, so the commodity names and personal names (if any are present) cannot be read in any modern language. The tablet is significant as a direct witness to one of the world's earliest bureaucratic writing systems, developed independently of — though clearly influenced by — the contemporary Uruk script of southern Mesopotamia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet lists several commodity entries, each paired with a numerical count. One entry records 1 unit of something; another records 2 units associated with a group of signs whose meaning remains unknown. Further lines record larger quantities — including what appear to be higher-order numerical signs representing counts in the tens or hundreds — alongside more commodity signs. The specific goods being tracked, and the names of any officials responsible for them, cannot be read: proto-Elamite writing is still undeciphered. The rest of the lines are too damaged or broken to recover.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , 1 [...] (signs M388, M332~d) , [...] [(M097~h?)] (M004) (M218) , 2 (M305#) (M316~e3#) (x) , [...] [...] , [...] (large numerical sign N30C) (M305) (M388) (M066#?) (M352~o) (M218) (M218+M320)# , [...] [...] , (large numerical sign N30C) (numerical sign N30D) (x) , [...]
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) [...] M388 M332~d , [...] [M097~h?] M004 M218 , 2(N01) M305# M316~e3# x , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N30C) M305 M388 M066#? M352~o M218 |M218+M320|# , [...] [...] , 1(N30C) 1(N30D) x , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 320. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008109) — 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.