MDP 17, 256

~3000 BCE·Uruk Period·P008454

About this tablet

A small administrative tablet from Susa (southwestern Iran), dating to the Uruk period — roughly 3300–3100 BCE — and now in the Louvre. It records quantities of commodities (or categories of goods) under a series of proto-cuneiform or proto-Elamite sign-groups, each followed by numerical notations using the standard Uruk sexagesimal system. The signs have not yet been phonetically deciphered, so we can describe the structure — entries, classifiers, and totals — but not name the specific goods in any language we can speak. This is among the very earliest bureaucratic record-keeping in human history, a snapshot of the accounting systems that preceded readable writing.

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 commodities — their exact nature is not yet decipherable from the signs used — each paired with a count: two units of one item, then one unit each of two further categories, then three units of another, and so on. A final summary line records a larger total: thirty-two units (3 times ten plus 2) of one class and ten units of another. The intermediate lines are partially broken or unclear. The full meaning of the commodity signs remains unknown.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Low confidence

[...] x M388 M057~a M029~b M288 , 2(N01) M346 , [...] [...] M057#? , 2(N01) M346 , 1(N01) M218 M323~c M066 , [...] [...] , 1(N01) M009 M073# , 3(N01) M346 , [...] M288# , 3(N14) 2(N01) M346 , 1(N14)

Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

Transliteration

[...] x M388 M057~a M029~b M288 , 2(N01)
M346 , [...]
[...] M057#? , 2(N01)
M346 , 1(N01)
M218 M323~c M066 , [...]
[...] , 1(N01)
M009 M073# , 3(N01)
M346 , [...]
M288# , 3(N14) 2(N01)
M346 , 1(N14)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 256. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008454) — 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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