Position in chronology
MDP 06, 375
About this tablet
This is a proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — among the very earliest accounting documents in human history. It records quantities of commodities or goods distributed or counted under institutional oversight, using a numerical notation system that scholars have partially deciphered even though the underlying language remains undecoded. The signs along the top appear to function as rubrics or category headers, while the body entries pair commodity signs with number notations in a format typical of Susa-period resource management. The reverse face, shown in the lower photograph, preserves fewer legible signs but includes numerical impressions and what may be a summary or seal-related entry. These tablets are fascinating because they represent a parallel invention of writing to Mesopotamian cuneiform — a distinct script tradition developed by a different culture to solve the same problem of large-scale economic record-keeping.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is an institutional accounting record. The opening lines appear to set a category or document type. Subsequent entries list specific commodities or resource categories — their identities are not yet fully decoded — alongside quantities: one unit here, one larger unit there, then three units of a third category, three of another, three more of a fifth, then single and double units in the closing lines, finishing with a tally of two units plus fractional amounts. The reverse holds additional entries or a summary, now partially broken. The rest of the signs are too damaged or as yet undeciphered to render more precisely.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineM157 [rubric / document-type sign] M203~c M136[?] M304 × M146~d M264~a , 1(N01) |M036+1(N30D)| , 1(N14) × M051~b M388 M146 M251~c[?] M218 M297 , 3(N39B) M111~b[?] M388 M347 M110 M250~ba[?] M387 M218 M297 , 3(N39B) M039~h M297 , 3(N39B)[?] M269~1 M260[?] , 1(N01) |M036+1(N14)| , 2(N01) M297 , 2(N01) 1(N39B) 1(N30C)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M157 , M203~c M136~p#? M304 x M146~d M264~a , 1(N01) |M036+1(N30D)| , 1(N14) x M051~b M388 M146 M251~c# M218 M297 , 3(N39B) M111~b# M388 M347 M110 M250~ba# M387 M218 M297 , 3(N39B) M039~h M297 , 3(N39B)# M269~1 M260# , 1(N01) |M036+1(N14)| , 2(N01) M297 , 2(N01) 1(N39B) 1(N30C)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 375. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008156) — 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.