MDP 06, 367

~3000 BCE·Uruk Period·P008149

About this tablet

This is a proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (modern southwestern Iran), dated to the Uruk period, roughly 3200–2900 BCE — among the very earliest written records in human history. It records quantities of commodities or goods (their exact nature is undeciphered) distributed across several categories, each paired with numerical notations using the proto-Elamite counting system. The signs themselves remain largely undeciphered: proto-Elamite script has never been fully read, so we can see the accounting structure clearly but cannot yet name what was being counted. Tablets like this reveal that complex bureaucratic record-keeping — tracking allocations, categories, and totals — emerged independently at Susa at almost exactly the same moment as in Mesopotamia proper.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

This tablet records a series of allocations or quantities, organized under a heading sign whose meaning is unknown. Several categories of goods — each identified by an undeciphered sign — are listed with their amounts: roughly 11 units of one item, 5 of another, a small fractional amount of a third, and so on, including a larger entry of about 15 units and a substantial tally of around 32 units near the end. The reverse side bears only a seal impression and a few marks. Because proto-Elamite script has not been deciphered, we can read the numbers clearly but cannot yet say what commodities or institutions these entries refer to.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Low confidence

[Heading/rubric: M157] M247~g M124 M374~c M124 : 1(N14) 1(N01) [= ~11 units] M124 : 5(N01) [= 5 units] M376 : 2(N01) 1(N08A) [= ~2+ units] M207~ma : [...] M376 : 1(N14) 5(N01) [= ~15 units] M124 : 1(N08A) [= fractional unit] M124 : 4(N01) [= 4 units] [...] : 3(N14) 2(N01) [= ~32 units] M149~a : 4(N01) [= 4 units]

Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

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Transliteration

M157# ,
M247~g M124 M374~c M124 , 1(N14) 1(N01)
M124 , 5(N01)
M376 , 2(N01) 1(N08A)
M207~ma , [...]
M376 , 1(N14) 5(N01)
M124 , 1(N08A)
M124 , 4(N01)#
[...] , 3(N14)# 2(N01)
M149~a# , 4(N01)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 367. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008149) — 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

~3200 BCE

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