Position in chronology
MDP 06, 5009
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa (modern southwest Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — among the earliest written records anywhere in the world. It records quantities of commodities (their exact nature undeciphered) grouped under a series of category signs, with numerical notations in the proto-Elamite sexagesimal system. Proto-Elamite script remains largely undeciphered: the sign values and the language behind them are still unknown, so what we can read is structure — lists, classifiers, and numbers — rather than specific words. This tablet is a vivid example of the ancient Near Eastern administrative impulse to count and categorize goods, the same impulse that drove the parallel invention of writing in Mesopotamia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is an administrative account listing various commodities — their identities unknown to us — alongside their quantities. The entries run in structured rows: a category or commodity sign (or compound of signs), sometimes a sub-classifier, then a number. The largest preserved total visible is 5 large units, 2 small units, and 3 of a fractional denomination; other entries record 1 large and 1 small unit, 1 large unit alone, or 3 small units. Several lines are broken away at the edges and cannot be read. The overall impression is of a carefully organized goods inventory, the ancient equivalent of a ledger page.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] M247~g M377 M217? x [...] , [...] [...] , 5(N14) 2(N01) 3(N39B) M136~b? [...] , [...] [...] M056~f M288 , 1(N14) 1(N01) M075~g M056~f M288 , [...] [...] M203~a M288 , 1(N14) M305 M388 M054 x [...] , [...] [...] x M288 , 3(N01) M292~a M388 M146 [...] , [...] [...] , 1(N14) M203~c M217 M288 , [...] x M005~a [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 5(N14) 1(N01) 2(N39B) [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] M247~g M377# M217#? x [...] , [...] [...] , 5(N14)# 2(N01) 3(N39B) M136~b#? [...] , [...] [...] M056~f# M288 , 1(N14) 1(N01) M075~g M056~f M288 , [...] [...] M203~a# M288 , 1(N14) M305 M388 M054 x [...] , [...] [...] x M288 , 3(N01) M292~a M388 M146# [...] , [...] [...] , 1(N14) M203~c M217# M288# , [...] x M005~a# [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 5(N14)# 1(N01)# 2(N39B)# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 5009. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008194) — 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.