Position in chronology
MDP 17, 005
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite administrative tablet from Susa (southwestern Iran), dating to roughly 3100–2900 BCE — one of the earliest writing systems ever used, and one that remains undeciphered to this day. The tablet records quantities of goods or animals distributed across several numbered entries, organized under heading signs whose exact meanings are still unknown. Both faces of the clay tablet survive, along with the edges, giving a relatively complete record. It is a small piece of the vast bureaucratic machinery that managed the economy of one of the ancient world's first urban centers.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet opens with a damaged or uncertain heading sign. Below it, a category marker is followed by a quantity: 2 large units and 1 medium unit (the rest of that line is broken away). Further entries record: 1 standard unit under one sign; 1 standard unit under the repeated category sign; 1 large unit (and possibly more, now lost) under an undeciphered commodity sign; and finally, under what may be a structural separator sign, a total or sub-total of 4 large units, 1 medium unit, and 2 smaller units. The signs naming the actual commodities cannot yet be read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine|M136+M365|# , |M175+M153| M270~e , 2(N39B) 1(N30C) [...] [...] M264~d2 , 1(N01) M270~e , 1(N01) M297 , 1(N39B) [...] M288 , 4(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C)
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
|M136+M365|# , |M175+M153| M270~e , 2(N39B) 1(N30C) [...] [...] M264~d2 , 1(N01) M270~e , 1(N01) M297 , 1(N39B) [...] M288 , 4(N39B) 1(N24) 2(N30C)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 005. 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 (P008203) — 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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