Position in chronology
MDP 17, 419
About this tablet
A Proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa, in southwestern Iran, written around 3100–2900 BCE in a script that is still largely undeciphered. It is a list of about a dozen entries, each pairing an unreadable sign (probably a commodity, person, or institution) with a small counted quantity, and the reverse carries a grand total punched into the clay. Tablets like this are among humanity's earliest bookkeeping — we can read the numbers perfectly, even though the words remain a mystery.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a ledger. Under a heading we cannot yet read, the scribe lists twelve items — each identified by a sign whose meaning is lost to us — with quantities beside them: two of most items, four of a couple, and one of another, twenty-seven units itemized in all. The scribe then flipped the tablet over and punched in a grand total of forty-three units (four tens and three ones), which does not obviously match the itemized sum — either the total covers more than what survives legibly, or the entries were weighted differently. The numbers are crystal clear; the words are not.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Obverse) (Heading:) M157 M124 M288 — 2 (units) M175+M286 — 2 (units) M265 — 2 (units) M081 — 2 (units) M001 — 4 (units) M134~b — 2 (units) M041 — 2 (units) M317~a — 1 (unit) M005~a(?) — 2 (units) M111~o — 2 (units) M316~f — 2 (units) M385~f — 4 (units) (Reverse — total:) 4(N14) 3(N01) — i.e. 4 large units (tens) and 3 single units, written in the curved/punched numeral variant.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
M157# , M124 M288 , 2(N01) |M175+M286| , 2(N01) M265 , 2(N01) M081 , 2(N01) M001 , 4(N01) M134~b , 2(N01) M041 , 2(N01) M317~a , 1(N01) M005~a? , 2(N01) M111~o , 2(N01) M316~f , 2(N01) M385~f , 4(N01) , 4(N14@c) 3(N01@c)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 419. 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 (P008617) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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