Position in chronology
MDP 06, 373
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite administrative tablet from ancient Susa (modern southwestern Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — one of the earliest writing systems in human history, still undeciphered. The tablet records quantities of commodities or animals under various commodity signs, using the characteristic proto-Elamite numerical notation. It is part of a large archive of accounting documents that show how the city of Susa managed goods, labor, or livestock at a scale that required written records for the first time. Because proto-Elamite script has not been phonetically deciphered, we can read the numbers and recognize sign categories but cannot recover the spoken words behind them.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet lists several categories of goods or commodities alongside numerical tallies: one entry records a large quantity (1 × N14) of an unidentified item in a compound category; another records 5 units of a second commodity; a third records 3 large units (3 × N14) of another item; further entries note 1 large unit plus 3 small units, then 1 large unit alone, and so on through at least eleven line entries, closing with 1 large unit of a final commodity. The specific goods cannot be named because the script remains undeciphered — we can see the accounting clearly, but the words themselves are still silent.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineM328~b M388 M032 M297 M032 , 1(N14) [...] [...] M005 , 5(N01) M376 , 3(N14) M149~a [...] , [...] [...] M032 , 1(N14) 3(N01) M005 , 1(N14) M321~h , [...] [...] M376 , 2(N14) M149~a , 1(N14) 2(N01) M068~c |M296+M296| M066 , [...] [...] M203~a , 1(N14)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M328~b M388 M032 M297 M032 , 1(N14) [...] [...] M005# , 5(N01) M376 , 3(N14) M149~a [...] , [...] [...] M032 , 1(N14) 3(N01) M005 , 1(N14) M321~h# , [...] [...] M376# , 2(N14) M149~a , 1(N14) 2(N01) M068~c |M296+M296| M066 , [...] [...] M203~a , 1(N14)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 373. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008154) — 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.