Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 5008
About this tablet
A Proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa, dating to the Uruk period (roughly 3200–2900 BCE), recording quantities of one or more commodities under a series of undeciphered category signs. The entries follow the standard Proto-Elamite format: a sign or sign-group on the left indicates the commodity or category, and a numeral on the right gives the quantity. Proto-Elamite remains undeciphered as a script, so we can read the numbers but not the words — we know this is an accounting document, but the specific goods or persons involved are unknown. It is one of thousands of such tablets from Susa that document the earliest complex economy on the Iranian plateau.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is an account list, but because Proto-Elamite has not been deciphered, we can only read the numbers. The entries record various quantities: one large unit and three small units of something; one small unit of something else; one large unit and four small units; two small units; three large units and four small units — and so on down the list. The beginning is broken and some lines are too damaged to read. What we have is the skeleton of a careful accounting record — the scribe knew exactly what each sign meant, but that knowledge has not survived to us.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] [...] M153, 1(N14) M244, 3(N01) [x x ...], [...] [...], [...] M153, 1(N01) M110~a M242~b M096 x, 1(N01) M153, 1(N14) 4(N01) x, 2(N01) M153~a, 3(N14) 4(N01) M387~l M288, 1(N01) M387~a, 1(N01)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] M153# , 1(N14) M244 , 3(N01) x x [...] , [...] [...] , [...] M153# , 1(N01) M110~a M242~b?! M096# x , 1(N01)# M153# , 1(N14) 4(N01) x , 2(N01) M153~a , 3(N14) 4(N01) M387~l M288 , 1(N01) M387~a , 1(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 5008. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009255) — 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.