MDP 17, 387

~3000 BCE·Uruk Period·P008585

About this tablet

A small proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern southwestern Iran), dated to the Uruk period (roughly 3200–2900 BCE), before true writing was fully developed. The surviving text records quantities — at least two entries noting '1 unit' of something — alongside a series of undeciphered sign compounds that likely denote commodity categories or institutional headings. This tablet is a witness to one of the earliest experiments in record-keeping in human history, contemporary with or slightly later than the earliest Mesopotamian tablets from Uruk; because proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered, only the numerals can be read with confidence, and the commodities being tracked are currently unknown.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

The tablet records what appear to be two separate administrative entries, each noting a quantity of 1 unit of some commodity or category — the specific goods are impossible to name because proto-Elamite writing has not yet been deciphered. Several sign compounds introduce or head the entries, possibly marking the type of institution, product, or personnel involved. The surface is damaged, with multiple passages broken away, leaving only fragments of what was once a short but complete accounting record. The rest is lost.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Low confidence

Line 1: [Sign compound |M327+M342|], Line 2: [x] M388 M057[?] [...] , [...] Line 3: [...] M218 , 1(N01) Line 4: |M131+M388| [...] M032 [...] , [...] Line 5: [...] M218(?) M259 M386~a |M131+M388| M263 [...] , [...] Line 6: [...] M099 M371 , 1(N01) Line 7: M386~a M240 M096[?] [...] , [...]

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

Transliteration

|M327+M342| ,
x M388 M057# [...] , [...]
[...] M218 , 1(N01)
|M131+M388| [...] M032 [...] , [...]
[...] M218? M259 M386~a |M131+M388| M263 [...] , [...]
[...] M099 M371 , 1(N01)
M386~a M240 M096# [...] , [...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 387. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008585) — 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

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~3500 BCE

Kish Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

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.