Position in chronology
MDP 17, 456
About this tablet
This is a small proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa (modern southwest Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — one of the earliest writing systems ever used. Like most proto-Elamite documents, it records quantities of commodities under sign-categories whose precise meanings remain undeciphered; the numbers follow a well-understood hierarchical system. The tablet is fragmentary, with several entries damaged or broken away, but its structure — commodity sign followed by a numeral — is typical of the vast proto-Elamite administrative archive from Susa. Proto-Elamite writing has never been fully deciphered, making tablets like this both historically precious and tantalizingly opaque.
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 entries, each paired with a quantity. Where readable: one unit of something (line 2); one larger unit of sign M206~g, though the tablet is damaged here (line 3); one unit of an unknown item (line 4); one larger unit of M352~a (line 5); an entry combining M297~b and M030~a with further signs now lost (line 6); four units of something partially broken (line 7); one larger unit of M453 (line 8); a combined sign M351+N14 with its quantity lost (line 9); two larger units and one smaller unit of an unknown commodity (line 10); and one unit of M449~b (line 11). The beginning of the tablet and several quantities are too damaged to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...], [...], 1(N01) [M206~g?], 1(N14)# [...], 1(N01) M352~a, 1(N14) M297~b M030~a x [...], [...] [...] x, 4(N01) M453, 1(N14) |M351+1(N14)|, [...] [...], 2(N14) 1(N01) M449~b, 1(N01)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] , 1(N01) M206~g#? , 1(N14)# [...] , 1(N01) M352~a , 1(N14) M297~b M030~a x [...] , [...] [...] x , 4(N01) M453 , 1(N14) |M351+1(N14)| , [...] [...] , 2(N14) 1(N01) M449~b , 1(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 456. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008654) — 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.