Position in chronology
MDP 17, 243
About this tablet
A small administrative tablet from the proto-Elamite site of Susa (modern Shush, Iran), dating to the Uruk period, roughly 3200–2900 BCE. It records quantities of unidentified commodities — possibly livestock, grain, or manufactured goods — organized in columnar entries of sign-groups paired with numerical notations. The reverse carries only faint impressions and a modern museum number (243). This tablet belongs to one of the world's earliest writing systems, proto-Elamite, which remains largely undeciphered: the numerical values are readable, but the commodity signs resist firm identification, making this a vivid illustration of how much ancient economic life is still locked away from us.
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 animals alongside their quantities: the entries read something like 'Category A: 1 large unit and 1 medium unit; Category B: 1 small unit; [unknown items]: 1 large unit; [further items]: 1 medium unit and 2 smaller units; [further items]: some number of units plus fractions.' A summary or total line at the bottom adds up several numerical values. The exact commodities are unknown — the signs recording them have not yet been deciphered — but the accounting structure is clear. Much of the left side is broken away, and several entries are only partially preserved.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] x , 2(N39B) [Sign M386] [Sign M263] , [...] [...] x [Sign M066] , [...] [...] [Sign M263~a] |M036+1(N30D)|[?] , [...] [...] , 1(N24)# 1(N30C)# [Sign M263] , 1(N01) 1(N24) [Sign M175] [Sign M136~c] , 1(N39B) x x [Sign M380] |M218+M288| [Sign M263] , 1(N01) [Sign M248~a] [Sign M259] [Sign M036] , 1(N24) 2(N30C@b) |M036+1(N30D)|[?] , [n] 1(N39B) 1(N30C) [...] , 2(N39B) 1(N30C) 1(N30D) 1(N39B@b) [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] x , 2(N39B) M386 M263 , [...] [...] x M066 , [...] [...] M263~a# |M036+1(N30D)|# , [...] [...] , 1(N24)# 1(N30C)# M263 , 1(N01) 1(N24) M175 M136~c , 1(N39B) x x M380 |M218+M288| M263 , 1(N01) M248~a M259 M036 , 1(N24) 2(N30C@b) |M036+1(N30D)|#? , n 1(N39B) 1(N30C) [...] , 2(N39B) 1(N30C) 1(N30D) 1(N39B@b) [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 243. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008441) — 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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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.