Position in chronology
MDP 17, 018
About this tablet
A small proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa (modern southwestern Iran), dated to the late fourth or early third millennium BCE — one of thousands of such tablets produced by the ancient city's administrative apparatus before writing had advanced far enough to record language directly. The obverse carries a heading sign-group, six commodity entries each followed by a quantity in the N14 (large unit) or N01 (small unit) numerical system, and a closing total line. Because proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered, the specific goods being counted cannot be named, but the structure — header, itemized list, summary total — is unmistakably that of an institutional ledger tracking disbursements or receipts of commodities. Tablets like this are among the world's earliest bureaucratic records, showing that complex accounting preceded readable writing by centuries.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet opens with what appears to be a category heading or account title. It then lists six separate commodity entries, each identified by a group of undeciphered signs and assigned a quantity — five entries record one large unit each, while the first entry records four small units. The final line gives the running total: five large units and four small units combined. The reverse is essentially blank or too damaged to yield further text. In plain terms: someone at ancient Susa was keeping a careful tally — six types of goods in, quantities recorded, total summed at the bottom. The signs identifying the goods remain undeciphered, so we know the accounting structure perfectly but cannot yet say what was being counted.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineHeader/label: |M377+M320+M377| Entry 1: M328~c M388 M297 M218 M056~f M288 — 4(N01) Entry 2: M009 M102~k M096~3 — 1(N14) Entry 3: M377 M032 M048~d M096~3 — 1(N14) Entry 4: M004 M102~k M096 — 1(N14) Entry 5: M122 M242~b M096~3 M388 M057~b M387 M218 — 1(N14) Entry 6: M387[?] M099 M218 M338~m M066[?] M388 M387[?] M250~ba M387[?] M128[?] M320[?] M096[?] — 1(N14) Total: M056~f M288 — 5(N14) 4(N01)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
|M377+M320+M377| , M328~c M388 M297 M218 M056~f# M288 , 4(N01) M009 M102~k# M096~3# , 1(N14) M377 M032 M048~d M096~3# , 1(N14) M004 M102~k M096 , 1(N14) M122# M242~b M096~3# M388 M057~b M387 M218 , 1(N14) M387#? M099 M218 M338~m M066# M388 M387# M250~ba M387#? M128#? M320#? M096#? , 1(N14) M056~f M288 , 5(N14) 4(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 018. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008216) — 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.