Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 4758
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (southwestern Iran), dating to the late fourth millennium BCE — roughly 3200–3000 BCE — during the Uruk period. Proto-Elamite is the world's most widespread early writing system, used across the Iranian plateau, though it has never been fully deciphered; the signs record quantities of commodities or institutional categories whose exact nature remains unknown. Each line pairs one or more category signs with a numerical notation, following a standard accounting format familiar from thousands of similar tablets at Susa. The tablet is interesting because it represents the very beginnings of record-keeping bureaucracy: an unnamed official carefully tallying goods — possibly animals, grain, or processed products — in a system sophisticated enough to distinguish sub-units (the N08A count versus the N01 count), yet one whose vocabulary we cannot yet read.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is an accounting record. A rubric or heading sign stands at the top, possibly labeling the document type or institution. Each of the following entries lists one or more category signs — identifying a type of commodity or grouping we cannot yet name — followed by a count: most entries record 1 unit of the standard count (N01), while three entries use the larger or different unit N08A. One broken line records 3 units. A single final entry records 1 more unit of the last category. The reverse is blank. The rest of the signs cannot be read with the tools currently available.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[Heading/rubric sign: |M327+X|] M157 |M175+M288| M124~c M259 M318 M371 M297[?] , 1(N01) [x] M281 M124 M259[?] M101 [x] M297[?] , 1(N01) M193 [x] M226~c M218 [x] M219[?] M029~a M242~d M096 M243~ee , 1(N08A) |M131+M388| M024~1[?] M281 M096 M243~ee , 1(N08A) M024~a1 M281[?] M096[?] M297[?] , 1(N08A) [...] , 3(N01) M243~ee[?] , 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
|M327+X| , M157# |M175+M288|# M124~c# M259# M318# M371# M297#? , 1(N01)# x M281# M124# M259#? M101 x M297#? , 1(N01) M193 x M226~c M218 x M219# M029~a M242~d M096# M243~ee , 1(N08A) |M131+M388| M024~1? M281# M096# M243~ee , 1(N08A) M024~a1 M281#? M096#? M297? , 1(N08A) [...] , 3(N01) M243~ee#? , 1(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 4758. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009196) — 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.