Position in chronology
MDP 17, 088
About this tablet
This is a proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, in southwestern Iran), dated to the Uruk period, roughly 3100–2900 BCE. It is one of thousands of such clay tablets recovered from Susa that record the management of commodities, animals, or labor under an early bureaucratic institution — but proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered, so the specific goods and transaction type cannot be determined with certainty. What is visible is the characteristic structure: a heading sign at the top, followed by rows pairing sign clusters (likely denoting commodity categories or responsible officials) with numerical notations in the proto-Elamite numerical system. This tablet is fragmentary, with the right and lower portions broken away, but it preserves enough to show the formal accounting layout typical of early urban record-keeping at Susa.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet opens with a heading or document-type marker whose meaning is unknown. What follows are several rows, each pairing one or more undeciphered commodity or category signs with quantities expressed in the proto-Elamite number system: one entry records 3 large units and 4 smaller units; another records 2 units and 4 smaller units; a third records 2 units and 2 smaller units. The sign groups between the heading and the numbers likely identify what is being counted — goods, animals, or labor allotments — but proto-Elamite cannot yet be read at that level. Much of the tablet is broken away, and the full totals are lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[Heading/rubric sign M157~a] [Sign cluster M195+M057~a4] [M324~c] [M056~f] [M206~d] [...] , [...] [...] [M288] , 3(N14) 4(N39B) [M167~a+M131~k] [M056~f] [...] , [...] [...] , 2(N01) 4(N39B) [M005~a] [M206~d] [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 2(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
M157~a , |M195+M057~a4| M324~c M056~f M206~d# [...] , [...] [...] M288 , 3(N14) 4(N39B) |M167~a+M131~k| M056~f# [...] , [...] [...] , 2(N01)# 4(N39B) M005~a M206~d# [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 2(N01) 2(N39B)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 088. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008286) — 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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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.