Position in chronology
MDP 17, 453
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite administrative tablet from ancient Susa (in modern Iran), dating to the late fourth millennium BCE — one of the very earliest writing systems anywhere in the world. It records quantities of commodities or livestock assigned to categories identified by signs whose meanings remain unknown, since proto-Elamite has not been deciphered. The tablet survives in several fragments that have been partially reassembled; the preserved face shows a ruled grid of numerical entries alongside commodity signs, the standard format of proto-Elamite accounting. It offers a window into the complex bureaucratic economy of one of the ancient Near East's earliest urban centers, contemporary with the earliest Sumerian tablets from Uruk.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is an accounting record listing quantities against several categories of goods or animals, each denoted by a sign whose meaning we cannot yet read. The totals vary: one entry records 3 large units of one category, another 4 smaller units of a second, then entries of 8 units each for two further categories, and so on down the column. Near the bottom, a different sign appears with a large-denomination numeral alongside smaller ones. Several lines at the edges are broken away and the commodity names in the damaged portions are lost. The rest of the entries are too damaged or too poorly preserved to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineM327 [header/classifier?] , M009 , 3(N14) M309~d , 4(N01)# [...] [...] , 1(N01) 5(N08A) [x] , 1(N14) 1(N01) [x] , 1(N14) 3(N01) [x] , 1(N01)# [...] [...] , 8(N01) [x] , 8(N01) M452 , 2(N14) 1(N01)# [...] [...] , 2(N14) 4(N01) M123~d , 1(N48) 3(N34)# [...] [x] , 2(N01)# [x] , 2(N01)#
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M327# , M009 , 3(N14) M309~d , 4(N01)# [...] [...] , 1(N01) 5(N08A) x , 1(N14) 1(N01) x , 1(N14) 3(N01) x , 1(N01)# [...] [...] , 8(N01) x , 8(N01) M452 , 2(N14) 1(N01)# [...] [...] , 2(N14) 4(N01) M123~d , 1(N48) 3(N34)# [...] x , 2(N01)# x , 2(N01)#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 453. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008651) — 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.