Position in chronology
MDP 06, 4999
About this tablet
This is a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from Susa (modern southwest Iran), dating to the Uruk period, roughly 3200–3000 BCE — among the very earliest written records in human history. It is an account document listing multiple commodity categories, each followed by a numerical quantity expressed in the sexagesimal (base-60) and bisexagesimal notation typical of this era. The tablet belongs to a proto-Elamite or late Uruk administrative tradition at Susa, where scribes used impressed numerical signs and incised pictographic commodity markers to track goods — possibly animals, grain products, or institutional outputs — across different categories or sub-headings. Because proto-cuneiform signs at this period have not been fully deciphered, the specific commodities and the institutional context remain uncertain, but the structured list format and the large totaling entry at the bottom are characteristic of archaic Mesopotamian and Elamite accounting.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The opening of this document is broken away. What survives is a structured list of goods or commodities — each entry giving a sign or group of signs that identifies a category, followed by a quantity. The quantities range from a single unit up to totals in the tens. The individual commodity names cannot yet be read in any modern language, since the script at this stage has not been fully deciphered. The final line appears to be a grand total or summary figure, and the reverse of the tablet is largely blank or too worn to read. The rest of the document's context is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...], [x x] M365 M388 M263~1 M033 M371 M288 , 7(N14) 4(N01) M218 M075~r M066 , 2(N14) 1(N01) M056~f M288 , 5(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N24)[?] M066[?] M374~c[?] , 1(N01) M288 , 2(N14) 1(N01) |M157+M288| , 1(N14) 1(N01) M292 M388 M321~b M032 M332~g M057~a1 M288 , 2(N14)[?] 2(N01) M305 M388 M057 M058~b M057[?] [x] , 1(N14)[?] 1(N01) M319 , 1(N01) M296[?] , 1(N01) M115~a[?] M029~b , 1(N01) |M157+M131~d| , 5(N01) M175[?] , 2(N01) [...] , 1(N45) 9(N01)[?] 2(N01)[?] 2(N39B)[?] 1(N24)
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
[...] , x x M365# M388 M263~1 M033# M371# M288 , 7(N14) 4(N01)# M218 M075~r# M066# , 2(N14) 1(N01)# M056~f# M288 , 5(N01) 2(N39B) 1(N24)#? M066#? M374~c#? , 1(N01) M288 , 2(N14) 1(N01) |M157+M288| , 1(N14) 1(N01) M292 M388 M321~b M032 M332~g M057~a1 M288 , 2(N14)#? 2(N01) M305# M388 M057 M058~b M057#? x , 1(N14)#? 1(N01) M319 , 1(N01) M296#? , 1(N01) M115~a#? M029~b , 1(N01) |M157+M131~d| , 5(N01) M175#? , 2(N01) [...] , 1(N45)# 9(N01)#? 2(N01)# 2(N39B)# 1(N24)#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 06, 4999. 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 (P008186) — 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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