Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 5036
About this tablet
A small proto-Elamite accounting tablet from ancient Susa (in modern southwest Iran), dated to the Uruk period, roughly 3300–3000 BCE. It records quantities of several undeciphered commodity categories, each paired with numerical notations in the proto-Elamite numerical system, and closes with what appears to be a summary total. Proto-Elamite remains an undeciphered script, so the commodity names and institutional context cannot be read as words — only the numerical values and the structural pattern of the tablet (heading, entries, total) are interpretable. This tablet is a vivid example of the earliest administrative record-keeping in ancient Iran, a society organizing its economy in writing at the very dawn of literacy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet opens with a heading or document-type marker whose meaning is unknown. It then lists several categories of goods — all undeciphered — each followed by a quantity: one category receives 2 units, another 2 (of a different sub-unit), a third gets 1 unit, another 1 (sub-unit), and one entry is too damaged to read. A recurring sign appears to mark each commodity entry. The tablet closes with what looks like a summary line totalling the quantities across entries. The specific goods and institutional names remain unreadable; what survives is the skeleton of an ancient accountant's ledger.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineM157~a [rubric/heading sign] M302~t(?) M387 M009 M264~a1 , 2(N01) M297(#) , 2(N39B)(#) [x] M263~b(#?) , 1(N01) M297 , 1(N39B) M002 , [...] M288 , 1(N01) 1(N39B) 1(N30C) 1(N34) [total?]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M157~a , M302~t? M387 M009 M264~a1 , 2(N01) M297# , 2(N39B)# x M263~b#? , 1(N01) M297 , 1(N39B) M002 , [...] M288 , 1(N01) 1(N39B) 1(N30C) 1(N34)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 5036. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009279) — 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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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.