Position in chronology
MDP 17, 222
About this tablet
A small proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, southwestern Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — among the earliest written records in human history. It records quantities of commodities or goods against a series of pictographic signs whose exact meanings remain undeciphered, since proto-Elamite script has never been fully read. Tablets like this were produced by temple or palace administrators to track allocations, rations, or inventories. Although we cannot yet say what specific goods are listed, the consistent structure — sign followed by a numerical count — makes clear this is an accounting document of the same type found by the thousands at Susa.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet lists a series of items or commodities, each followed by a count: one of the first item, one of the second, four of the third, one of a compound fourth item, one of a fifth, one of a sixth, nine of the seventh, one of the eighth, eleven (or ten plus one) of the ninth, and two of an unclear final entry. Unfortunately, because proto-Elamite writing remains undeciphered, we cannot say what these items actually are — only that someone carefully counted them out and wrote the totals down.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our enginex M009[?], 1 unit M009[?], 1 unit M309~a[?], 4 units |M348+M288|[?], 1 unit M110~c, 1 unit M309, 1 unit M009[?], 9 units M009[?], 1 unit M309~a[?], 1(N14) 1 unit [= 11 units?] x, 2 units
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
x M009#? , 1(N01) M009#? , 1(N01) M309~a? , 4(N01) |M348+M288|# , 1(N01) M110~c , 1(N01) M309 , 1(N01) M009#? , 9(N01) M009#? , 1(N01) M309~a#? , 1(N14) 1(N01) x , 2(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 222. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008420) — 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.