Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 4769
About this tablet
A small administrative tablet from ancient Susa (in modern Iran), dating to the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), written in proto-cuneiform or proto-Elamite script — among the very earliest forms of writing ever produced. The tablet records quantities of commodities or livestock assigned to categories marked by classifier signs, with a totalling line at the bottom. Because the signs used here belong to an archaic writing system that has not been fully deciphered, individual commodity names cannot be read with confidence; what is clear is the accounting structure — individual entries and a running total — which is the hallmark of early Mesopotamian and Elamite administrative bookkeeping. Tablets like this one document the moment when human record-keeping first moved from memory and tokens to incised clay, making them among the most historically significant objects in existence.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is an accounts record. The heading sign at the top labels the document's type or subject. Below it, five entries list different commodity categories — each marked with classifier signs whose precise meanings are lost to us — paired with their quantities. The final line gives the grand total: 3 large units plus 1 small unit plus 1 further fractional unit. The rest of the detail — what exactly was being counted and by whom — is either damaged beyond reading or simply not yet deciphered.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[Heading/rubric:] M157 M177~a M388 M032 M297 M288 , 1(N14) M348 M288 , 1(N01) 1(N39B) M292 M388 M146 M032 M332~g [...] , [1(N14)?] x M347 M219? M101 , 1(N14) M288 , 3(N14) 1(N01) 1(N39B) [total]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M157 M177~a M388 M032 M297 M288 , 1(N14) M348 M288# , 1(N01) 1(N39B) M292 M388 M146 M032 M332~g [...] , 1(N14)#? x M347 M219#? M101 , 1(N14) M288# , 3(N14) 1(N01) 1(N39B)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 4769. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009207) — 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.