Position in chronology
MDP 17, 022
About this tablet
A small Proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (southwestern Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — among the earliest writing in human history. The tablet records quantities of unidentified commodities or goods, organized under repeated heading signs in a columnar format typical of Proto-Elamite accounting practice. Because Proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered, we can read the numerals clearly but cannot assign names to the commodities or the parties involved. Tablets like this one were produced by an emerging bureaucracy managing the flow of goods in one of the ancient world's first urban centers.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is an accounting record. The first entry notes a heading or category (signs M327+M074~a and M193) followed by a quantity of 21 units of something under sign M032. Then 2 units of whatever M376 designates. Next, a combination of signs M391, M005, and M032 together account for 6 units, followed again by 2 units of M376. Another entry records 11 units under M391 and M032, and finally 1 unit of M376. The commodities and people involved cannot be named — the script has not been deciphered — but the careful tallying is unmistakable.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[Sign M327+M074~a] [Sign M193], [Sign M032], 2(N14) 1(N01) [= 21 units] [Sign M376], 2(N01) [= 2 units] [Sign M391] [Sign M005] [Sign M032], 6(N01) [= 6 units] [Sign M376], 2(N01) [= 2 units] [Sign M391] [Sign M032], 1(N14) 1(N01) [= 11 units] [Sign M376], 1(N01) [= 1 unit]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
|M327+M074~a| M193 , M032 , 2(N14) 1(N01) M376 , 2(N01) M391 M005 M032 , 6(N01) M376 , 2(N01) M391 M032 , 1(N14) 1(N01) M376 , 1(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 022. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008220) — 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.