Position in chronology
MDP 17, 249
About this tablet
This is a Proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), dating to the Uruk period, roughly 3100–2900 BCE. It records quantities of commodities or goods — almost certainly livestock, grain, or labor allocations — entered in the characteristic Proto-Elamite accounting format of sign-groups followed by impressed numerical notations. The tablet is one of thousands of such records produced by the ancient administrative centers of Susiana, and it represents some of the earliest systematic record-keeping in human history. Because Proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered, the commodity signs can be noted and classified but their precise meanings cannot yet be read.
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 commodities or goods — each entry identified by one or more sign-groups whose exact meanings we cannot yet read — alongside quantities recorded in the Uruk-period numerical system: entries of one, two, or a few units per line. A recurring marker (M288) appears to group or classify the entries. Several lines are damaged or broken, and a number of signs remain ambiguous. The overall structure is that of a running account or inventory, with totals that are now largely lost. The full content cannot be recovered until Proto-Elamite script is deciphered.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , [x] , 2(N39B) M244 [x] , [...] [x] M010~2 , 1(N14) M388? M262 M259 M218 , 1(N30C) [...] [x] M096 , 1(N39B) M048~d M288 , 1(N24) 1(N30C) M057~b1 , [...] [x] M218 M288 , 1(N30C) M024 M024 M288 , 1(N30C) [x] M371 M288 , 1(N30C) M386~a M288 , 1(N24) M155 , [...] [...] , [...]
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)# M244# x , [...] x M010~2# , 1(N14) M388#? M262 M259 M218 , 1(N30C) [...] x M096 , 1(N39B) M048~d M288 , 1(N24) 1(N30C) M057~b1 , [...] x M218 M288 , 1(N30C) M024 M024 M288 , 1(N30C) x M371 M288 , 1(N30C) M386~a M288 , 1(N24) M155 , [...] [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 249. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008447) — 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.