Position in chronology
MDP 17, 230
About this tablet
A small administrative tablet from Susa (southwestern Iran), dating to the Uruk period — roughly 3300–3000 BCE, among the earliest moments of writing anywhere in the world. It records quantities of commodities or rations, most likely goods managed by a temple or civic storehouse, using the proto-cuneiform sign system that preceded fully developed writing. The numerals are straightforward (1, 2, 6), but the commodity signs are only partially preserved, making the exact transaction impossible to specify. Tablets like this one are the bureaucratic roots of literacy: accountants pressed signs into wet clay to keep track of goods, and in doing so invented the written record.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Translation · reference
Low confidence[...] [sign M332~c?] [sign M249~n1?] [...] , [...] [...] , 2 [signs M115~a M281~f M377~e M223] , 1 [...] [sign M218] , 1 [signs M032 M371] , 1 [...] , 6
Source: engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation)
Translation · AI engine
read from photo[...] [sign M332~c?] [sign M249~n1?] [...] , [...] [...] , 2 [signs M115~a M281~f M377~e M223] , 1 [...] [sign M218] , 1 [signs M032 M371] , 1 [...] , 6
6 uncertain terms ↓
- M332~c#? — Damaged and uncertain sign; the '#' and '?' markers in the transliteration indicate the reading is tentative. Cannot be confirmed from the photograph at available resolution.
- M249~n1# — Variant of M249; the '#' signals damage. May be a different sign entirely. Not confirmable from the photo.
- M115~a M281~f M377~e M223 — A cluster of proto-cuneiform commodity signs in one line; their combined meaning — likely a specific commodity or ration category — is unclear without parallel texts to anchor interpretation.
- M218 — Interpreted in the glossary as a subtotal or section-divider sign; this function is inferred from administrative parallels, not confirmed independently.
- M032 M371 — Sign pair whose commodity referent is unknown from this fragment alone.
- N01 numerals (1, 2, 6) — The basic round-impression unit of the proto-cuneiform numerical system; what unit of measure or commodity these count cannot be determined from the surviving text.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows multiple views of a small, heavily damaged clay tablet fragment (museum number Sb 22396, Louvre). The obverse (upper centre image) preserves several rows of cuneiform-like wedge impressions: in the upper portion I can make out clusters of vertical wedges — consistent with the N01 numeral impressions (the round-pressed dot strokes typical of proto-cuneiform numerical notation) — and in the middle rows there are more complex sign clusters with diagonal and crossing wedges that could correspond to the commodity signs M115~a, M281~f, M377~e, M223, and M032/M371 as given in the transliteration. The lower left of the obverse shows further faint impressed strokes, degraded. The reverse (lower image) appears nearly blank or too eroded to read. The edges and a fragment to the left show the broken state of the tablet. The surface is heavily pitted and discoloured, with significant erosion obscuring fine wedge details. I cannot independently confirm sign identities beyond the general impression of numerals and commodity-sign clusters, so alignment with the transliteration is plausible but not verifiable at this resolution. The transliteration itself is clearly marked with uncertainty indicators (#, ?) throughout, and the glossary notes explicitly caution that most sign readings are inferential. Confidence is therefore low.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 15, 2026 · 1949 in / 923 out tokens
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] M332~c#? M249~n1#? [...] , [...] [...] , 2(N01)# M115~a M281~f M377~e M223 , 1(N01) [...] M218 , 1(N01) M032 M371 , 1(N01) [...] , 6(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 230. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008428) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation).
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.