Position in chronology
MDP 17, 303
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite (or late Uruk-period) administrative tablet from Susa, ancient southwestern Iran, dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — among the very earliest writing in the world. It records quantities of an unidentified commodity or set of commodities, entered in a columnar accounting format typical of these early archives: sign or signs on the left denoting what is being counted, numerals on the right recording how many. The signs (designated M263, M387, M057~b, etc.) belong to proto-Elamite script, which remains undeciphered, so we cannot say what commodity, animal, or category is being tallied. The tablet survives in several fragments, and the photograph shows it has been reconstructed from broken pieces bearing circular punched numerals and angular impressed signs in the characteristic proto-Elamite style.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is an accounting record — a list of entries, each pairing one or more unidentified category signs with a numeral. Typical entries read something like: '[category sign], 3 units' or '[category sign A] [category sign B], 1 large unit + 1 smaller unit.' The numerals involve both small units (N01, each equal to one) and larger capacity or counting units (N30C, N30C@b). Several lines are broken and unreadable. Because proto-Elamite script is still undeciphered, we cannot say what commodity is being counted or who the parties are — only that quantities were being carefully tracked across roughly fourteen entries before the tablet broke.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] M263, 3(N01) M387~ef M036#, [...] [...], 2(N30C) 1(N30C@b) M387 M263, 1(N01) n(n@b)# [...], 1(N30C)# 1(N30C@b) x M243~e#, 2(N30C) [...], 1(N01) M263, 1(N01) [...], 1(N30C)# M387~ef M048~d M263, 1(N01) 1(N30C@b) x, [...] [...], n x x x, 1(N01)#? M057~b [...], [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] M263 , 3(N01) M387~ef M036# , [...] [...] , 2(N30C) 1(N30C@b) M387 M263 , 1(N01) n(n@b)# [...] , 1(N30C)# 1(N30C@b) x M243~e# , 2(N30C) [...] , 1(N01) M263 , 1(N01) [...] , 1(N30C)# M387~ef M048~d M263 , 1(N01) 1(N30C@b) x , [...] [...] , n x x x , 1(N01)#? M057~b [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 303. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008501) — 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.