Position in chronology
MDP 06, 5002
About this tablet
An administrative accounting tablet from ancient Susa (modern Shush, Iran), dating to the Uruk period, roughly 3200–3000 BCE. It records quantities of goods or commodities — the exact nature of which cannot be determined, as the sign values in this proto-Elamite/proto-cuneiform script remain largely undeciphered — assigned or distributed under a series of institutional categories. The numerical system is recognizable: N01, N24, and N39B are standard Uruk-era capacity or quantity notation. This tablet is one of the earliest surviving examples of written record-keeping from Susa, a major administrative center that adopted the Mesopotamian writing system from the city of Uruk and adapted it to local needs.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a list of allocations or disbursements. An opening rubric or heading sign introduces several entries, each recording a commodity or category — identified by compound sign groups whose meanings we cannot yet read — alongside numerical quantities: one unit of type N01, one of N24, one to four units of N39B, and so on across at least nine entries. The last line is too damaged to read. The overall picture is of a careful accounting of goods, tallied and categorized, probably by a temple or palace administrator at Susa around 5,000 years ago.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[Rubric/heading sign M157] [M247~f M377 M217 M388 M102~d M004 M218 M288] : 1 (unit N01) [M124 M380?] [...] : 1 (unit N24) [M218 M369~b M288] : 1 (unit N39B) [M461? M390 M218? M370 M288] : 4 (units N39B) [...] [M347 M219 M101 M370 M288] : 2 (units N39B) 1 (unit N24) [M371 M332~d M218] [...] : [...] 1 (unit N39B) [M263 x M146 M371?] <M288> : 2 (units N39B) 1 (unit N24) [M217?] : [...] 2 (units N39B) 1 (unit N24) [x x x x x] : [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M157# , M247~f M377 M217 M388 M102~d M004 M218 M288 , 1(N01) M124 M380#? [...] , 1(N24) M218 M369~b M288 , 1(N39B) M461# M390 M218# M370 M288 , 4(N39B) [...] M347 M219 M101 M370 M288 , 2(N39B) 1(N24) M371 M332~d M218 [...] , [...] 1(N39B) M263 x M146 M371#? <M288> , 2(N39B) 1(N24) M217#? , [...] 2(N39B)# 1(N24)# x x x x x , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 5002. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008188) — 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.