Position in chronology
MDP 17, 442
About this tablet
This is a proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), dating to roughly 3200–2900 BCE — one of the earliest writing systems ever used, and one that has never been fully deciphered. The tablet records a list of commodity entries: eleven lines each tally one unit of the same unknown category (sign M387 paired with M069~a), followed by a damaged summary or sub-total section. Tablets like this were the bookkeeping backbone of early urban institutions — temples or storehouses tracking deliveries, rations, or inventories. Because proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered, we can read the structure and the numbers clearly, but the precise commodity and the identities of any individuals involved remain unknown.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Eleven separate entries, each recording one unit of the same commodity or category — we can read the numbers clearly, but the signs naming what is being counted have not yet been deciphered. The tablet then shifts to a damaged lower section showing subtotals or a different category: two units of something in one broken line, and three larger units (N39B) of another category in a second broken line. The final lines are too damaged to read. In short: a neat, repetitive inventory list, methodically tallied, whose goods remain a mystery.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[M387 M069~a , 1(N01)] M387 M069~a , 1(N01) M387 M069~a , 1(N01) M387 M069~a , 1(N01) M387 M069~a , 1(N01) M387 M069~a , 1(N01) M387 M069~a , 1(N01) [M387 M069~a] , 1(N01) M387 M069~a , 1(N01) M387 M069~a , 1(N01) M387 M069~a , 1(N01) [...] , 2(N01) M038~a [...] , [...] [...] M112~e , 3(N39B) [...] , [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[M387] M069~a# , 1(N01)# M387# M069~a , 1(N01) M387 M069~a , 1(N01) M387# M069~a , 1(N01) M387 M069~a , 1(N01) M387 M069~a , 1(N01) M387 M069~a , 1(N01) [M387 M069~a] , 1(N01)# M387 M069~a , 1(N01)# M387 M069~a , 1(N01) M387 M069~a , 1(N01) [...] , 2(N01) M038~a# [...] , [...] [...] M112~e , 3(N39B) [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 442. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008640) — 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.