Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 5055
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa, dating to around 3100–2900 BCE — among the earliest writing systems used anywhere in the world, predating fully deciphered script. It records quantities of commodities or goods across roughly twelve entries, each pairing one or more undeciphered category signs with a numerical value. The tablet is fragmentary and heavily damaged, with portions broken away on all sides. Proto-Elamite remains undeciphered: we can read the numbers confidently but the commodity signs cannot yet be translated into any known language, making this a vivid example of a writing system that still resists full understanding.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet lists goods or commodities in separate entries: three units of one category, two of another, then several damaged or lost lines, followed by one large unit of something, three units of one type, two of a compound category, one unit of a mixed entry, one unit of another category, three units each of two further categories, and finally two units of a last type. The commodity words themselves cannot be read — we only know their quantities. Much of the middle section is broken away or too damaged to recover.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineLine 1: [Sign M250~a] [Sign M315?] x — 3 Line 2: [Sign M250~a] [Sign M131] [Sign M262] [Sign M218] — 2 Line 3: x [...] — [...] Line 4: [...] [Sign M347?] x [Sign M223] — 1 (large unit) Line 5: [Sign M054?] [Sign M004] [Sign M066] — 3 Line 6: [Sign M262] |[Sign M106]+[Sign M288]| [Sign M066] — 2 Line 7: [...] [Sign M388?] [Sign M066?] [Sign M066?] x [Sign M057?] — 1? Line 8: [Sign M371?] [Sign M332?] [Sign M131] [Sign M263] x — 1 Line 9: [...] x [Sign M096?] — 3 Line 10: [Sign M390] [Sign M262?] [Sign M096?] — 3 Line 11: x x [...] — [...] Line 12: [...] [Sign M390] [Sign M004] [Sign M218] — 2
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
M250~a M315# x , 3(N01) M250~a M131 M262 M218 , 2(N01)# x [...] , [...] [...] M347# x M223 , 1(N14) M054# M004 M066 , 3(N01) M262 |M106+M288| M066 , 2(N01)# [...] M388#? M066# M066# x M057# , 1(N01)#? M371# M332# M131 M263 x , 1(N01)# [...] x M096#? , 3(N01) M390 M262#? M096#? , 3(N01) x x [...] , [...] [...] M390 M004 M218 , 2(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 5055. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009552) — 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.