Position in chronology
MDP 17, 247
About this tablet
This is an Uruk-period proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from Susa (in modern Iran), dated to roughly 3200–3000 BCE — among the very earliest written records anywhere in the world. It is an accounting document listing quantities of commodities or animals under a series of institutional categories, most of which remain undeciphered. The sign groups (M304, M346, M376, and others) represent commodity or category classifiers whose meanings are not yet fully understood; the numerals beside them record amounts. Tablets like this one are the direct forerunners of writing itself: bureaucrats pressing simple pictographs and tally marks into clay to track institutional goods, long before a script capable of expressing language had developed.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records a series of commodity entries, each paired with a numerical quantity. The surviving lines show entries of 1, 19, 2, 3, 20, 1, 15, 20, 4, 1, and 14 units against various category signs, several of which are now too damaged or too poorly understood to identify. A number of entries are partially broken away, and at least one quantity is entirely lost. The overall impression is a stock-taking list — someone counting things and writing down the totals — but the names of the commodities themselves are, for now, beyond our ability to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...], 1 M387 x, [...] [...], 1(N14) 9(N01) [= 19] M305, 2 M376, [...] [...], 3 M004 M058 M057~a M346, 2(N14) [= 20] [...] x M320(?), 1 M346, 1(N14) 5(N01) [= 15] [...] M066 M346, 2(N14) [= 20] x, [...] [...], 4 x x M388, 1 [...], 1(N14) 4(N01) [= 14] [...], n [= quantity lost]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Engine notes
read from photo4 uncertain terms ↓
- M387, M305, M376, M004, M058, M057~a, M346, M320, M066, M388 — These are proto-cuneiform sign designations from the CDLI/MSVO sign list. Their referents — what commodity or category each pictogram represents — are in most cases not yet conclusively identified. M346 may relate to a type of vessel or container; M004 and M058 appear in administrative contexts possibly related to grain or rations, but certainty is low.
- N14 value — The numerical value of N14 relative to N01 depends on which metrological system is in use (sexagesimal, bisexagesimal, capacity, area, etc.). In the most common Uruk period sexagesimal system N14 = 10 × N01, giving e.g. '1(N14) 9(N01)' = 19 and '2(N14)' = 20. This conventional rendering is used in the translation but is system-dependent.
- M320#? — The '#' and '?' in the transliteration indicate the reading is uncertain even for the original editor — the sign is damaged or ambiguous. Cannot verify from photo.
- n (final line) — Conventional notation indicating a numeral is present but its value is illegible or entirely broken away.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows multiple fragments of a small clay tablet, here arranged to display the obverse and reverse along with edge fragments and a separate lower piece. The upper cluster of fragments shows clear horizontal rulings separating entries, with visible impressed numerical signs (round deep impressions for N01, larger round impressions for N14) and incised/impressed pictographic signs in each register. Several circular hole-like impressions are visible mid-tablet — these appear to be the N01 numerical signs rather than damage. The surface is significantly abraded and cracked, with substantial lacunae at the edges of almost every line, consistent with the heavy use of square brackets and 'x' in the scholar-provided transliteration. The lower large fragment (reverse or a separate face) shows only faint incised marks, heavily eroded and largely illegible from the photograph. A museum label '247' (the MDP catalog number) is visible on one piece. The photo broadly confirms the transliteration's structure of alternating commodity signs and numerals in ruled registers, though individual sign identifications (e.g., M320?, M387, M388) cannot be verified at this resolution given the proto-cuneiform pictographic style and surface erosion. This is a standard Uruk-period proto-cuneiform account tablet from Susa, paralleling the Uruk IV–III corpus from southern Mesopotamia; the sign corpus and metrological system align with the MDP 17 and MSVO publication traditions (Damerow & Englund).
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 15, 2026 · 2076 in / 1029 out tokens
Transliteration
[...] , 1(N01) M387# x , [...] [...] , 1(N14) 9(N01) M305# , 2(N01) M376 , [...] [...] , 3(N01)# M004 M058 M057~a M346 , 2(N14) [...] x M320#? , 1(N01) M346 , 1(N14) 5(N01) [...] M066 M346 , 2(N14) x , [...] [...] , 4(N01) x x M388 , 1(N01) [...] , 1(N14) 4(N01) [...] , n
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 247. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008445) — 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.