Position in chronology
MDP 17, 167
About this tablet
This is a fragment of a proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — one of the earliest writing systems ever used, and one that remains undeciphered. Like thousands of similar tablets found at Susa and other early Iranian sites, it appears to record quantities of commodities or goods under sign-classifiers, probably as part of an institutional accounting system. The numerals (N14, N39B, N34) are the clearest surviving feature: they mark amounts counted in specific units, suggesting tallies of animals, grain, or workers. Proto-Elamite preceded and ran parallel to early Sumerian writing but was a distinct system; the signs here cannot yet be read as words.
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 heading or category marker. It then records: one large unit (N14) of a commodity designated by signs M317+M269 combined with M297~d, followed by a broken passage; then one large unit (N14) associated with two instances of M262~1 and the sign M096; a damaged line; two larger units (N39B) of M297~d; more damaged or lost text; and finally a single unit counted as 1(N34). In modern terms: this is a ledger page — several line-items, each naming a type of thing and a quantity, capped by what may be a sub-total. Most of the commodity names are still unreadable; only the numbers survive clearly.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineM157~a [document-type marker / rubric] |M317+M269| M297~d , 1(N14) [...] [...] M262~1 M262~1 M096 , 1(N14) [x] , [...] M297~d , 2(N39B) [x ...] , [...] 1(N34)
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 , |M317+M269| M297~d , 1(N14) [...] [...] M262~1 M262~1 M096 , 1(N14) x , [...] M297~d , 2(N39B) x [...] , [...] 1(N34)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 167. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008365) — 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.