Position in chronology
MDP 17, 125
About this tablet
This is a proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (in modern southwestern Iran), dating to approximately 3100–2900 BCE — among the earliest writing in the world, predating the decipherment of any known script. It records quantities of unknown commodities arranged in a structured list, with a heading sign at the top and numerical notations in the N01 system (single units) against each entry. Proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered, so while we can read the numbers and identify the sign forms, the specific commodities and the names of any people or institutions involved cannot be recovered. Tablets like this were the accounting tools of a complex urban economy — tracking goods, animals, or rations across a large administrative network centered on 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 category sign whose meaning is unknown. Below it, a series of entries lists quantities: three units of one item, two units of another, then a damaged entry whose count is lost, then one unit of a third item, four units of a fourth, two units of a fifth (possibly a compound category), and finally one unit of a sixth. The numbers are clear; the commodities themselves cannot yet be read. The rest of the text is too damaged or too poorly understood to translate further.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineM157 [heading/rubric — function unknown] M387 M266~b M261~b1 , 3(N01) M263~a , 2(N01) M387~ef [...] , [...] M387 M260~1 , 1(N01) M263 , 4(N01) |M175+M136| M266~b M261~b1 , 2(N01)[?] M261~b1 , 1(N01)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M157# , M387 M266~b# M261~b1 , 3(N01) M263~a , 2(N01) M387~ef [...] , [...] M387 M260~1# , 1(N01) M263 , 4(N01) |M175+M136| M266~b M261~b1 , 2(N01)# M261~b1 , 1(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 125. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008323) — 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.