Position in chronology
MDP 17, 161
About this tablet
A proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from Susa (southwestern Iran), dating to the late Uruk period, roughly 3200–3000 BCE — among the very earliest writing in human history. It records quantities of commodities or categories of goods under a series of archaic signs whose precise meanings remain unknown. Tablets like this one were produced by early bureaucrats tracking the flow of resources through a large institution, most likely a temple or palace complex. The numerical notation is clear even where the commodity signs resist identification, testifying to the primary purpose of early writing as an accounting tool.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet lists several categories of goods or commodities, each paired with a count. One category has 7 units; another (a sub-variant of the same sign) has 16; a further category records 6 units; another 1 unit; another 40 units; and a final entry records 2 units, with the rest broken away. Several entries at the beginning are too damaged to read. The commodity labels themselves have not yet been deciphered.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , [...] , 5 M367 , 7 [...] , 2 M367~c , 1(×10) 6 M346~a2 , 6 M006 , 1 [x] , 4(×10) M269~a2 , 2 [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] , 5(N01) M367 , 7(N01) [...] , 2(N01) M367~c , 1(N14) 6(N01) M346~a2 , 6(N01) M006 , 1(N01) x , 4(N14) M269~a2 , 2(N01)# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 161. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008359) — 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.