Position in chronology
MDP 17, 368
About this tablet
A small administrative tablet from ancient Susa (in modern Iran), dating to the Uruk period — roughly 3300–3000 BCE — when proto-writing was still in its earliest experimental phase. The tablet records quantities of various commodities or categories of goods, each paired with a numeral, in the manner of an inventory or ration list. Because Proto-Elamite script remains largely undeciphered, the specific commodities cannot be named, but the structure — sign cluster followed by a count — is the standard bookkeeping format of this era. It is one of the earliest administrative documents in human history, produced by a scribal community at Susa that was keeping track of institutional resources at the very dawn of writing.
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 goods or categories, each followed by a small count: one unit of [something], one unit of [M110 item], two units of M370, an unknown quantity of M072, one unit of the M387–M009–M371 group, one more unit of M370, an uncertain quantity of M066–M001–M376, one unit of an unidentified item, one more M370, and an uncertain quantity involving M145~a and M377. The final legible entry records three units of something. Most of the sign values remain undeciphered — what survives is the skeleton of an ancient accountant's tally, its specific contents still locked away in an unread script.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...], 1 [...] M110, 1 M370, 2 M072, [...] M387 M009 M371, 1 M370, 1 M066(?) M001(?) M376(?), [...] [x], 1 M370(?), 1 M145~a M377 [x] M371, [...] [...], 3(?)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , 1(N01) [...] M110 , 1(N01) M370# , 2(N01) M072 , [...] M387 M009 M371 , 1(N01) M370 , 1(N01) M066? M001#? M376#? , [...] x , 1(N01) M370#? , 1(N01) M145~a M377 x M371 , [...] [...] , 3(N01)?
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 368. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008566) — 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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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.