Position in chronology
MDP 17, 334
About this tablet
A Proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa, dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — among the earliest writing in the world. It records quantities of commodities or goods (most likely animals, grain, or labour units) using numerical notation alongside signs whose exact meanings remain undeciphered, as Proto-Elamite has not yet been fully decoded. Each line pairs one or more commodity signs with a numerical entry, the classic format of ancient accountancy. The tablet survives in multiple fragments (museum numbers Sb 22489, accession 334), and despite its damaged state it is a direct window into the complex administrative economy of early urban Susa.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is a list of commodity entries, each recording a category of goods alongside a quantity. The readable numbers range from small single units (1) to larger round figures (the N30C notation representing a higher-order count). The commodity signs themselves — identifying what exactly is being counted in each line — have not yet been deciphered, so we can say: 'Item A: 1; Item B: 1 large unit; Item C: 1 plus a larger count; ...' and so on through ten entries, several of which are too damaged to read. The rest of the tablet's specific content is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineLine 1: [Signs M388, M380, M218+M320, M347, M377~e] , 1(N01) Line 2: [M222] , 1(N30C) Line 3: [x] , 1(N01) 1(N24) Line 4: [M175, M380, x, ...] , [...] Line 5: [...] , 1(N30C)# [n] Line 6: [x, x] , 1(N30C) Line 7: [..., M009] , 1(N30C)# Line 8: [x, x, M371#?] , [...] Line 9: [x] , [n] Line 10: [M011] , 1(N24) 1(N30C)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M388# M380 |M218+M320| M347 M377~e , 1(N01) M222 , 1(N30C) x , 1(N01) 1(N24) M175 M380 x [...] , [...] [...] , 1(N30C)# n x x , 1(N30C) [...] M009 , 1(N30C)# x x M371#? , [...] x , n M011 , 1(N24) 1(N30C)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 334. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008532) — 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.