Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 4771
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (southwestern Iran), probably dating to around 3100–2900 BCE — among the world's earliest writing. It records quantities of commodities or animals (their exact nature is undeciphered) distributed across several numbered entries, with a final tally line. Like thousands of similar tablets from Susa, it was part of a sophisticated urban accounting system that tracked goods through a complex bureaucracy, even before the underlying language can be read. Proto-Elamite writing remains undeciphered, so the signs can be identified and counted but not translated into words.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a ledger entry. It lists several categories of goods or animals — we cannot yet read their names — each assigned a quantity. One category gets 3 units; another gets 1 unit plus two smaller sub-units and one mid-range unit; a further entry records 1 unit each for three successive categories; one line is too damaged to read; a final substantive entry records 2 units, 2 sub-units, and several additional fractional amounts. The whole account closes with a single summary figure of 1 (in the largest unit, N34). The rest of the signs remain undeciphered.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[Header/label:] M401 M393~a, M340, [x x x], M054 — 3 (units) M288 — 1 (unit), 2 (sub-units N39B), 1 (N24) M054 — 1 (unit) M265 — 1 (unit) M354 — 1 (unit) M286[?] (damaged) M297~b — 2 (units), 2 (sub-units N39B), 1 (N24), 1 (N30D), 1 (N39C) [Total/summary:] 1 (N34)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M401 , M393~a M340 x x x M054 , 3(N01) M288 , 1(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N24) M054 , 1(N01) M265 , 1(N01) M354 , 1(N01) M286#? M297~b , 2(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N24) 1(N30D) 1(N39C) 1(N34)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 4771. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009209) — 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.