Position in chronology
MDP 31, 025
About this tablet
A small proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern Shush, southwestern Iran), dated to the late fourth millennium BCE — among the earliest writing in the world. The tablet records quantities of commodities assigned to several categories identified by undeciphered proto-Elamite signs, with numerical notations in the standard proto-Elamite sexagesimal system. It preserves both an obverse with multiple commodity-entries and a reverse continuing the count, and appears to culminate in a summary or subtotal line. Proto-Elamite tablets like this one were the bookkeeping backbone of an ancient urban economy, tracking goods across institutions before any word had yet been written in a deciphered language.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet lists several categories of goods — their exact nature is still unknown because proto-Elamite writing has not been deciphered — alongside the quantities assigned to each. The entries run: approximately 38 units of one commodity, 25 of another, then 3, 5, 5, 7, and 10 units of further types. A summary line appears to total 63 units across combined categories. The reverse repeats a similar short sequence: 3, 7, 10, and 5 units. Some signs and numbers at the edges are damaged or broken.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse: [... M278~f?] , [3(N14)] 8(N01) [= ca. 38 units] M278~f , 2(N14) [5(N01)] [= ca. 25 units] [|M278+1(N24)|] , 3(N01)# [= 3 units] M283~a1 , 5(N01) [= 5 units] M276~e , 5(N01) [= 5 units] M290~a# , 7(N01) [= 7 units] M064~a , 1(N14) [= 10 units] M228~gb M278~f |M351+1(N14)| , 1(N34) 3(N01) [= 63 units — likely a subtotal or summary entry] Reverse: |M278+1(N24)| , [3(N01)] [= 3 units] M290~a , 7(N01) [= 7 units] M064~a , 1(N14) [= 10 units] M276~e , 5(N01) [= 5 units]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[... M278~f?] , [3(N14)] 8(N01)# M278~f , 2(N14) [5(N01)] [|M278+1(N24)|] , 3(N01)# M283~a1 , 5(N01) M276~e , 5(N01) M290~a# , 7(N01) M064~a , 1(N14) M228~gb M278~f |M351+1(N14)| , 1(N34) 3(N01) |M278+1(N24)| , [3(N01)] M290~a , 7(N01) M064~a , 1(N14) M276~e , 5(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 31, 025. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009365) — 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.