Position in chronology
MDP 06, 364
About this tablet
An administrative accounting tablet from ancient Susa (in modern Iran), dating to the Uruk period, roughly 3300–3100 BCE — among the very earliest written records anywhere in the world. It appears to record quantities of commodities or allocations using proto-Elamite or proto-cuneiform signs whose precise meanings remain undeciphered. The tablet is broken into several fragments and shows the characteristic mix of impressed numerical signs (round and elongated impressions for different units) alongside incised commodity signs. Tablets like this one were the world's first bureaucratic paperwork: early administrators tracking goods, animals, or labor before writing had developed into a fully readable language.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records a series of entries, each combining one or more category or commodity signs with numerical quantities. The first entry lists several signs together and counts 1 unit. The second entry records 4 larger units and 3 smaller units of something under the same category marker. The third entry, under a different heading, totals 5 larger units and 3 smaller units. A fourth entry is too damaged to read fully, but records 2 of a large unit and 1 of another. The fifth entry lists three signs together and counts 2 larger and 4 smaller units. The sixth entry records 2 large units before breaking off. The specific commodities and categories cannot be identified with current knowledge of this script.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineLine 1: [M288~a] [M388] [M124] [M057~a4] [M240~e] [M295~c] [M281~e] — 1 (unit N01) Line 2: [M288~a] — 4 (N14) [...] 3 (N01) Line 3: [M025] [M256~c] [M057~a] [M288~a] — 5 (N14) 3 (N01) Line 4: [...] x [M288] — 2 (N34)? 1 (N45) [...] Line 5: [...] [M223] [M224] [M218] [M288] — 2 (N14) 4 (N01) Line 6: [M288~a] — 2 (N34) [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Engine notes
read from photo5 uncertain terms ↓
- M288~a, M288 — Recurrent sign, possibly a commodity qualifier or classifier; exact semantic value unestablished in proto-cuneiform studies. The '~a' variant indicates a sub-type distinguished in the CDLI sign list.
- N14, N34, N45, N01 — Numerical signs in the Uruk-period sexagesimal or other metrological system. N01 = 1 unit; N14 conventionally = 10 N01 in sexagesimal contexts but varies by commodity; N34 and N45 are higher-order signs whose exact values depend on the counting system, which cannot be recovered from this fragment alone.
- M218, M223, M224 — Signs appearing in line 5; M218 may function as a subtotal or section-marker by analogy with parallel tablets, but this is inferred, not confirmed.
- M025, M256~c, M057~a, M057~a4, M240~e, M295~c, M281~e, M388, M124 — Proto-cuneiform pictographic signs whose readings (Sumerian or otherwise) and meanings are not securely established. The M-series designation is the CDLI/ATF classification for proto-cuneiform signs not yet fully decoded.
- 2(N34)#? — The '#?' in the transliteration signals that even the sign identification is uncertain here; the reading is the scholar's best guess from damaged impressions.
Reasoning ↓
Visually, the photograph shows a badly damaged clay tablet now in multiple joining and non-joining fragments (museum number Sb 15188, Louvre). The obverse (upper central piece) preserves several rows of incised proto-cuneiform signs and impressed numerical notations; the characteristic round N01 and larger circular N14/N34 impressions are visible to the eye, consistent with the transliteration's numerical entries. The sign groups in the upper rows show complex incised pictographs — clusters of wedges and diagonal strokes — that align broadly with the scholar's transliteration of multiple M-series signs per line, though individual sign identification at this resolution is very difficult. The lower fragment (also shown) appears largely blank or very lightly inscribed on what is probably the reverse, consistent with a simple account tablet where the reverse carries little or no text. The red ink numeral '364' and black-ink 'Sb 15188' are modern museum labels. The state of preservation is poor: surface erosion, breakage across multiple lines, and areas of bituminous or fire-blackening obscure many signs. The transliteration itself carries multiple '#' (uncertain) and '[...]' (broken) markers, reflecting genuine damage. Because the proto-cuneiform sign values (M-series) are not yet fully decoded and the commodity system cannot be determined from this fragment alone, a full semantic translation is not possible; what survives is a framework of administrative entries with numerical tallies. No standard English translation tradition exists for this text; the rendering above is a structural paraphrase only.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 15, 2026 · 2300 in / 1172 out tokens
Transliteration
M288~a M388 M124 M057~a4 M240~e M295~c M281~e , 1(N01) M288~a , 4(N14) [...] 3(N01)# M025 M256~c M057~a M288~a# , 5(N14) 3(N01)# [...] x M288 , 2(N34)#? 1(N45) [...] [...] M223# M224# M218# M288# , 2(N14)# 4(N01)# M288~a , 2(N34) [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 364. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008146) — 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.