Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 4787
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), dating to the late fourth millennium BCE — among the very earliest writing found anywhere in the world outside Mesopotamia. The tablet records quantities of one or more commodities assigned to categories or institutional headings that scholars have not yet been able to read, because proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered. The numerical system is legible — it records units ranging from small counts to larger totals — but the names of the goods, the people involved, and the purpose of the transaction are currently opaque. Tablets like this are the bureaucratic backbone of an early urban economy at Susa, a contemporary and probable trading partner of Uruk-period southern Mesopotamia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet lists quantities of various commodities or categories under headings we cannot yet read. One entry records a total of roughly 1 large-unit, 9 medium-units, and 2 small-units of something; another records 2 medium-units, 4 small-units, and fractional amounts under a different category heading. Several more entries follow a similar pattern — a sign or group of signs naming a category, followed by numerical quantities — but many of the headings and some of the numbers are too damaged to read. The overall structure is a tally sheet, most likely tracking disbursements or stocks of goods within a temple or palace economy. Much of the specific detail is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] [...] , 1(N45) 9(N14) 2(N01) [x] [...] , 2(N14) 4(N01) 3(N39B) 1(N30C) M203~c M288 , 6(N14) [...] [...] M387~i M387~i M054 M288 , 4(N14) 3(N39B) 1(N30C) M340 [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N01) M054 [x] M288 , 3(N01) M371? [x] [x] M048~c M288 , 4(N14) [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] , 1(N45) 9(N14) 2(N01) x [...] , 2(N14) 4(N01) 3(N39B) 1(N30C) M203~c M288 , 6(N14) [...] [...] M387~i M387~i M054 M288 , 4(N14) 3(N39B) 1(N30C) M340 [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N01)# M054 x M288# , 3(N01) M371#? x x M048~c# M288 , 4(N14)# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 4787. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009224) — 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.