Position in chronology
MDP 17, 413
About this tablet
This is a proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, southwestern Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — one of the earliest writing systems ever used, and one that remains undeciphered. Like most proto-Elamite tablets, it records numerical quantities alongside pictographic sign categories, almost certainly tracking commodities such as livestock, grain, or other goods managed by a central institution. The round holes and impressed numerical notations visible on the obverse are characteristic of this accounting tradition. Because proto-Elamite signs have not been given confirmed phonetic readings, it is impossible to render personal names, commodity terms, or verbal content in any human language — the tablet speaks only in quantities and categories we can count but not yet name.
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 commodity categories (their exact identity unknown, since the script remains undeciphered), each paired with a numerical quantity. The entries record amounts such as four large units, then three standard units and one sub-unit, then one standard unit, then five units, and so on down to six large units in the final legible line. Several entries are broken away and lost. The overall impression is a tally sheet — goods counted, sorted by type, and recorded for institutional oversight.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineM365 , M056 , 4(N34)# [...] [...] , 3(N01) 1(N08A) M193~g , 1(N01)# [...] M188~g , 5(N01) M059 , [...] M324~e , 4(N14)# [...] , 2(N14) [...] , 6(N34)#
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M365 , M056 , 4(N34)# [...] [...] , 3(N01) 1(N08A) M193~g , 1(N01)# [...] M188~g , 5(N01) M059 , [...] M324~e , 4(N14)# [...] , 2(N14) [...] , 6(N34)#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 413. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008611) — 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.