Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 5041
About this tablet
One of the earliest written documents in human history, this small clay tablet from Susa (southwestern Iran) dates to the late fourth millennium BCE — the very dawn of writing. It records quantities of commodities using the proto-Elamite or proto-cuneiform numerical system, where round impressions (N14) and elongated wedges (N01, N34) represent different orders of magnitude. The repeated sign M288 appears as a commodity classifier or administrative heading for each entry. The tablet is too fragmentary and the sign values too poorly understood to recover a precise commodity or institution, but it represents the kind of early bureaucratic record-keeping — counting and categorizing goods — that drove the invention of writing itself.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet lists several entries, each apparently combining a commodity sign (M288, and in two cases a compound sign involving M106 and M288) with a numerical quantity. Quantities range from single units up to combinations in the hundreds. Several lines are too damaged to read fully. The final lines may represent subtotals or additional entries in the same series. Exactly what is being counted — animals, grain, textiles, or something else — cannot be determined from the surviving signs alone.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineLine 1: M288[?], 2(N34) [...] Line 2: [...], [...] 5(N14) Line 3: M284~m, 1(N01) Line 4: M288, 2(N34) [...] Line 5: [...], [...] 9(N14) 4(N01) Line 6: |M106~2+M288|(?), 1(N01)[?] Line 7: M288[?], [...] Line 8: [...], 2(N34) 7(N14) Line 9: |M106~2+M288|[?], [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M288#? , 2(N34)# [...] [...] , [...] 5(N14) M284~m , 1(N01) M288 , 2(N34) [...] [...] , [...] 9(N14)# 4(N01) |M106~2+M288|? , 1(N01)# M288#? , [...] [...] , 2(N34) 7(N14) |M106~2+M288|# , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 5041. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009284) — 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.