Position in chronology
MDP 17, 445
About this tablet
A heavily fragmented administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), dating to the Uruk period — roughly 3300–3000 BCE. It is written in Proto-Elamite, the earliest known writing system of ancient Iran, which has not been fully deciphered. The tablet records a series of commodity entries, each followed by a numerical quantity expressed in the standard Proto-Elamite counting system using large units (N14) and smaller units (N01). Like thousands of similar tablets from Susa, this was almost certainly an institutional accounting record — tracking goods, animals, or rations — produced by a centralized administration at one of the earliest urban centers outside Mesopotamia.
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 entries, each associating one or more commodity or category signs with a numerical quantity — amounts ranging from 6 small units up to 1 or 2 large units. Many of the sign groups are too broken or too poorly understood to name as specific commodities. What survives reads roughly: entry [unknown category], quantity 1 large unit; entry [unknown], quantity 1 large unit; entry [unknown], quantity 2 large units; entry [three unread signs], quantity 6; entry [several signs], quantity 1 large unit and 6; and so on through thirteen lines, most of them damaged. The rest of the tablet is too broken to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , 1(N14) [M009] [M259] x , 1(N14)# [...] [...] , 2(N14) [M347] [M377~e] [M218] , 6(N01)# [...] [M057~b] [M032]? [M066] , 1(N14) 6(N01) [M054] [...] , [...] [...] x x [M240] , 1(N14) 4(N01) [M387] [M262] [...] , [...] [...] , 1(N14) [...] x [M304]? , 8(N01) [M001] [M388] [...] , [...] [...] [M096]# , 6(N01) [...] , [...] 2(N14)#
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , 1(N14) M009# M259# x , 1(N14)# [...] [...] , 2(N14) M347 M377~e M218 , 6(N01)# [...] M057~b M032#? M066 , 1(N14) 6(N01) M054 [...] , [...] [...] x x M240 , 1(N14) 4(N01) M387 M262 [...] , [...] [...] , 1(N14) [...] x M304#? , 8(N01) M001 M388 [...] , [...] [...] M096# , 6(N01) [...] , [...] 2(N14)#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 445. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008643) — 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.