Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 0340
About this tablet
A fragmentary Proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa, dating to the late Uruk period (roughly 3100–2900 BCE), recording quantities of one or more commodities under a repeating structural sign that may function as a category classifier or separator. The numerical notations use the standard Proto-Elamite sexagesimal and bisexagesimal systems. Because Proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered, the specific commodity and the identities of any individuals involved cannot be recovered — only the numerical quantities and the formal structure of the accounting entries survive. Tablets like this one represent the very earliest bureaucratic record-keeping in ancient Iran, a parallel administrative tradition to the near-contemporary cuneiform archives of Mesopotamia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet lists several entries, each associating one or more undeciphered sign-groups with a quantity. One entry records 2 large units of something; another records 1 medium unit and 3 small units; a third entry gives a more complex quantity: 1 unit, 3 of one sub-denomination, 2 of another, and 1 of a fourth. A final partial line shows at least 6 medium units. The beginning and end of most lines are broken away, and the commodity being counted cannot be identified. The rest is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] M377 M010~1 M288 , 2(N45) [...] [...] M324~a M288 , 1(N14) 3(N01) [x] M288 , [...] [...] M288 , 1(N01) 3(N39B) 2(N30C) 1(N30D) [...] , [...] 6(N14) [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] M377# M010~1# M288 , 2(N45) [...] [...] M324~a M288 , 1(N14) 3(N01) x M288# , [...] [...] M288# , 1(N01) 3(N39B) 2(N30C) 1(N30D) [...] , [...] 6(N14)# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 0340. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009186) — 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.