Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 4788
About this tablet
A fragmentary proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa (modern Shush, southwest Iran), dating to the Uruk period, roughly 3100–2900 BCE. It records quantities of unidentified commodities — most likely livestock, grain, or manufactured goods — organized in the characteristic proto-Elamite format of commodity signs followed by numerical notations. The final line almost certainly represents a totalling entry, a standard feature of proto-Elamite administrative practice. Proto-Elamite remains undeciphered as a script, so the specific goods and institutional actors cannot be identified, but the tablet is a vivid snapshot of the ancient Near East's earliest bureaucratic record-keeping outside Mesopotamia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A damaged administrative account lists several entries of unidentified goods with their quantities: roughly 4 units of something, then 12 of another, 13 of a third. Several lines are too broken or contain signs still undeciphered to read. The final line records a large total — 1(N45) 3(N14) 4(N01), equivalent to a substantial sum in the proto-Elamite numerical system. This appears to be a summation of the entries above, as was standard practice in these early accounting documents.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] 4(N14) [x] M288, 1(N14) 2(N01) [...] M066 M288, 1(N14) 3(N01) M387~a M111~i M242~b [...], [...] [...] M066 M352~o M218 M259 M218 M288, 1(N14) M038~h [...], [...] [...] M288, 3(N01) M047 [x] M288, 3(N01) [1(N39B)] M288, 1(N45) 3(N14) 4(N01)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , 4(N14) x M288 , 1(N14) 2(N01)# [...] M066# M288 , 1(N14) 3(N01) M387~a M111~i M242~b [...] , [...] [...] M066 M352~o M218 M259# M218 M288 , 1(N14) M038~h [...] , [...] [...] M288 , 3(N01) M047 x M288 , 3(N01)# 1(N39B)# M288 , 1(N45) 3(N14) 4(N01)#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 4788. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009225) — 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.