Position in chronology
MDP 17, 259
About this tablet
A small Proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa, ancient southwestern Iran, dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — among the earliest writing systems in the world, and one that remains undeciphered. The tablet records quantities of one or more commodities against a series of signs whose meanings are not yet known, using a numerical notation system that scholars have partially decoded. Fragments of the tablet survive in several pieces, now held at the Louvre; the surviving content is a typical Proto-Elamite administrative entry, the kind of bookkeeping record that once tracked goods, animals, or labor in a complex urban economy. Because Proto-Elamite script has not been deciphered, we can read the numbers but not the words.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records one or more quantities against categories we cannot yet name. The first entry logs a single small unit (1 N01) of something designated M217. The second entry logs a larger unit (1 N14) of something designated M387~a. A third entry, partly broken, lists two further sign-groups with another large-unit quantity (1 N14). A fourth entry, also damaged, records a different quantity notation (1 N39B) against signs including M341, M038~a, and M296. The final line is too broken to read. The numbers survive; the words behind them remain, for now, unknown.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineLine 1: M217~m — 1(N01) Line 2: M387~a [|M036+1(N30D)|] — 1(N14) Line 3: [...] M361~c M361~b M080~ca [|M036+1(N30D)|] — 1(N14)[?] Line 4: [...] M341[?] M038~a[?] M296[?] — 1(N39B) Line 5: M038~a[?] [...] — [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M217~m , 1(N01) M387~a |M036+1(N30D)| , 1(N14) [...] M361~c1 M361~b1 M080~ca |M036+1(N30D)| , 1(N14)# [...] M341# M038~a# M296# , 1(N39B) M038~a# [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 259. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008457) — 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.