Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 4760
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa (modern Shush, south-western Iran), dating to the late fourth millennium BCE — one of the very earliest writing systems in human history. The tablet records quantities of goods or commodities distributed across several entries, using numerical notation and classifier signs whose precise meanings remain undeciphered. Each line pairs an unread commodity sign with a numerical value, with a recurring sign (M288) marking structural divisions or categories. Proto-Elamite script has never been fully deciphered, so this tablet remains partially opaque even to specialists, but its format is instantly recognisable as administrative bookkeeping of the Uruk-period economy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a damaged account record listing several categories of goods with their quantities. The first entry, partly lost, records seven units of something under an unread heading. The second entry gives a count of one large unit plus four medium units plus five small units. Subsequent lines record one medium unit of an unidentified item, then a single small unit in a broken line, then eight units of another commodity identified by two classifier signs, and finally a total or summary line reading one large unit, one medium unit, and one small unit. Several lines are too broken to read fully.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[ x x M288 ], 7(N14) [...] M288, 1(N45) 4(N14) 5(N01) M010~3, 1(N14) [...] [...], 1(N01)[?] M005~a[?] |M305+X|, 8(N14) M288, 1(N34) 1(N14) 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
x x M288 , 7(N14) [...] M288# , 1(N45) 4(N14) 5(N01) M010~3 , 1(N14) [...] [...] , 1(N01)# M005~a#? |M305+X| , 8(N14) M288 , 1(N34) 1(N14) 1(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 4760. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009198) — 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.