Position in chronology
MDP 06, 381
About this tablet
This is a small accounting tablet from ancient Susa (in modern Iran), dating to the Uruk period, roughly 3300–3000 BCE — among the earliest written documents in human history. It records quantities of commodities listed against numerical notations, the kind of tally used by administrators tracking goods through a temple or palace storehouse. The signs belong to a proto-cuneiform or proto-Elamite writing system that has not been fully deciphered, so we can read the numbers clearly but cannot yet name most of the items being counted. Tablets like this are historically extraordinary: they represent writing being invented for the first time, as a tool for managing economic life.
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 commodity entries, each paired with a quantity. The first entry lists a compound sign grouping alongside a numerical value equivalent to one large unit (N14). Subsequent lines record further commodity categories — each paired with quantities ranging from single small units (N01) to combinations of medium and large units. The final tally reads: 1 large unit, 2 medium-large units, 2 medium units, and 1 large sub-unit. Much of the right side of the tablet is broken away, and the names of the commodities themselves remain undeciphered; only the numbers survive intact.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineM340 M388 M099 M304~b [...] , [...] |M036+1(N30D)|[?] , 1(N14) M304 M388 M218 [...] , [...] [...] M297[?] , 1(N39B) M111~f M388 [...] , [...] [...] M388 , 1(N01) M112~d M388 [...] , [...] M297 , 1(N01) 2(N39B) 2(N30C) 1(N30D)[?]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
M340 M388 M099 M304~b [...] , [...] |M036+1(N30D)|#? , 1(N14) M304 M388 M218 [...] , [...] [...] M297#? , 1(N39B) M111~f M388 [...] , [...] [...] M388 , 1(N01) M112~d M388 [...] , [...] M297 , 1(N01) 2(N39B) 2(N30C) 1(N30D)#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 381. 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 (P008162) — 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
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