Position in chronology
MDP 31, 042
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa (modern southwestern Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — among the earliest writing ever produced by human hands. The tablet records quantities of unknown commodities, each identified by an undeciphered sign and followed by numerical notations using the sexagesimal and other numerical systems typical of proto-Elamite bookkeeping. Proto-Elamite script remains undeciphered: the commodity signs cannot yet be read as words, but the numerical entries are clearly structured administrative tallies, probably from a redistributive palace or temple economy. This tablet is a vivid example of how writing was invented independently — and almost simultaneously — in Mesopotamia and Iran, driven entirely by the need to count and track goods.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a list of tallies — several different categories of goods (we cannot yet read what they are), each recorded with its quantity. One commodity totals 3 large units; another, 1 unit; a third, 9 units; then 9 units of something else; 5 units of something broken away; 4 large units of one category; 4 units of another; then 4 large units and 4 units of a combined entry; and finally a grand-total-style entry recording 1 very large unit, 2 large units, and 5 individual units for two commodity signs together. The rest is either lost or too damaged to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , [Sign M383] , 3 (large units) x [Sign M325?] , 1 (unit) x , 9 (units) [Sign M059] , 9 (units) [...] , 5 (units) [Sign M124] , 4 (large units) [Sign M059] , 4 (units) [Sign M124?] , 4 (large units) 4 (units) [Sign M054?] [Sign M124?] , 1 (large-large unit) 2 (large units) 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
[...] , M383 , 3(N14) x M325# , 1(N01)# x , 9(N01) M059 , 9(N01)# [...] , 5(N01) M124 , 4(N14) M059 , 4(N01) M124# , 4(N14)# 4(N01) M054# M124# , 1(N23) 2(N14) 5(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 31, 042. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009381) — 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.