Position in chronology
MDP 17, 239
About this tablet
A Proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, southwest Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — among the earliest writing systems ever used. Each line records a commodity category, identified by undeciphered signs, alongside a numerical quantity expressed in the Proto-Elamite counting system. The tablet is badly broken into several fragments, and most of the commodity signs remain semantically opaque, but the structure is clearly that of an institutional accounting record. Proto-Elamite tablets like this one represent an independent invention of writing, distinct from the better-known Mesopotamian cuneiform tradition, and are still not fully deciphered by modern scholars.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is an accounting record listing several categories of goods (or animals, or people — the category signs are not yet readable) with their corresponding quantities. One entry totals 4 units; another 2; a third apparently 1 unit and 2 smaller units; another 2 units plus a fractional amount; another records 21 units; and a final partial entry lists 1 unit and a further fraction before breaking off. The rest of the tablet is too damaged or broken to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , 4(N14) x M288 , 2(N14) M356# x M036# M312# x , 1(N14)# 2(N01)# [...] x M288# , 2(N01) 2(N30C) M217# M124 M288# , 2(N14) 1(N01) M288# , 1(N01)# 1(N29B)# [...] [...] , [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , 4(N14) x M288 , 2(N14) M356# x M036# M312# x , 1(N14)# 2(N01)# [...] x M288# , 2(N01) 2(N30C) M217# M124 M288# , 2(N14) 1(N01) M288# , 1(N01)# 1(N29B)# [...] [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 239. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008437) — 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.