Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 4835
About this tablet
A small, heavily damaged Proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), dating to roughly 3200–2900 BCE — one of the world's earliest writing systems, still undeciphered. The surviving signs record commodity categories alongside numerical notations using the Proto-Elamite numerical system (N01 and N39B signs represent different counting units). This tablet is interesting precisely because it is so fragmentary: even in its broken state, it testifies to the sophisticated bureaucratic economy of ancient Elam, where administrators tracked goods using a script that remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of ancient writing.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
What survives on this badly broken tablet is a series of accounting entries, each pairing one or more commodity or category signs with numerical quantities — something like '1 unit, 1 count' in the first line, '2 units, 3 count' in the second. The third line preserves a few more signs before the text breaks off entirely, and the fourth line is reduced to a single numerical notation. The rest is lost to breakage and erosion.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] (sign M388) (sign M347?) (sign M057~b1?) (sign M218?) , 1(N01) 1(N39B)? [...] [...] (sign M057) (sign M320) , 2(N01) 3(N39B)? [...] (sign M305)? (sign M388) (sign M097~h)? (sign M226~c) (sign M371) [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 2(N39B)? [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Engine notes
read from photo10 uncertain terms ↓
- M388 — Proto-cuneiform sign designation from the CDLI/ATF system; commodity or administrative function in this context not established with certainty from the surviving text alone.
- M347# — The '#' indicates the reading is uncertain in the transliteration (damaged sign); cannot verify from photo.
- M057~b1# — Damaged/uncertain reading in the transliteration; the '~b1' indicates a specific sub-type of sign M057. Cannot confirm from photo.
- M218 — Glossed as a subtotal or section-divider; precise administrative function inferred from parallels, not independently confirmed in this tablet.
- N39B — Elongated impressed numeral; exact metrological value (area, capacity, or other commodity system) is debated in the literature. Its commodity-specific meaning here is unknown given the fragmentary context.
- M305#? — Doubly uncertain: '#' (damaged) and '?' (sign identification tentative). Cannot verify from photo.
- M097~h#? — Tentative and damaged reading of a sub-type of M097; not verifiable from photo.
- M226~c — Sub-type designation; sign function in this administrative context unknown.
- M371 — Proto-cuneiform sign; commodity or administrative role not specified in surviving context.
- M320 — Proto-cuneiform sign; commodity or administrative role not specified in surviving context.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows a roughly sub-rectangular clay tablet, presented in multiple views (obverse, reverse, edges, and the museum label 'Sb 15310 / 4835' visible in red on the reverse). The obverse surface (central large fragment, upper-center in the composite image) is the only inscribed face visible; it shows multiple rows of impressed wedge and round marks consistent with proto-cuneiform administrative notation of the Uruk period. The surface is heavily eroded and cracked, with at least two clear horizontal case-divisions (rulings) partially visible. I can observe clusters of impressed marks that plausibly correspond to the round-impression numerals (N01 type) and what may be the elongated N39B impressions, as well as more complex incised signs in the upper rows, but individual sign identification at this resolution and preservation level is not reliable for all entries. The transliteration supplied by the project editors (using CDLI proto-cuneiform sign designations M388, M347, M057, M218, M320, M305, M097, M226, M371 and numerals N01, N39B) cannot be independently confirmed sign-by-sign from this photograph; the resolution and erosion are too severe for that level of cross-check. The general layout — commodity signs in the left portion of each case, numerical impressions on the right, separated by a comma-marker — is consistent with what is visible. No systematic discrepancy between the photo and transliteration can be confirmed or denied at this resolution. This tablet belongs to the corpus of early proto-cuneiform administrative texts from Susa published in MDP 26 (Damerow & Englund 1989) and catalogued in CDLI as P009242.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 15, 2026 · 1962 in / 1195 out tokens
Transliteration
x M388 M347# M057~b1# M218 , 1(N01) 1(N39B)# [...] [...] x M057 M320 , 2(N01) 3(N39B)# [...] M305#? M388 M097~h#? M226~c M371 [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 2(N39B)# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 4835. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009242) — 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.