Position in chronology
MDP 26S, 5038
About this tablet
A broken clay tablet from Susa in southwestern Iran, written a little after 3000 BCE in the proto-Elamite script — a writing system that, unlike Sumerian cuneiform, has never been deciphered. The layout is nevertheless perfectly legible as bookkeeping: a heading sign at the top, then a series of entries in which groups of signs (commodities, people or institutions) are each followed by a number, here twice the quantity 2. Only the front of the tablet was used; the back was left smooth and blank, as is normal for these accounts. It is a receipt or disbursement record whose subject we can see but cannot yet read.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet opens with a header sign, then lists items with their quantities. The first entry names several commodity or agent signs, but its number is broken off. The next entry ends with the figure 2, and a following line — its description lost — also records 2. A final entry begins with two more signs and then breaks away. Everything after that is missing, and the reverse of the tablet was never written on. Because proto-Elamite remains undeciphered, we can follow the accounting structure — item, item, number — without knowing what was being counted.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse (Heading) M157~a — M038~a, M381, M388, M338~b[?] … — [numeral lost] … M242~ab[?], M380~b, M048~c, M218 — 2(N01)[?] … — 2(N01) M254~a, M380~b[?], (traces) … — [numeral lost] (Remainder of the obverse broken away) Reverse: uninscribed.
Our translation engine — Opus 5. 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.
Engine notes
read from photo6 uncertain terms ↓
- M157~a — Proto-cuneiform/proto-Elamite heading sign; commodity or institutional referent not yet established for Susa tablets of this period. Could indicate a category of goods, an institution, or a personnel class.
- M038~a, M381, M388, M338~b — Sequence of sign-list identifiers whose lexical values in this early script are not securely known; readings are purely graphemic labels from the CDLI sign list, not phonetic readings.
- M242~ab, M380~b, M048~c — As above; these signs appear as qualifiers or commodity-type markers in proto-Elamite administrative contexts, but their exact referents are debated.
- M218 — Tentatively interpreted as a subtotal or section-divider sign by analogy with similar tablets; function not independently confirmed for this document.
- M254~a, M380~b — Partially preserved in a damaged line; the 'x' in the transliteration indicates an unidentified or unreadable sign, making the entry's referent unknown.
- 2(N01) — The numeral '2' expressed by two impressed circles (N01 = standard unit in proto-cuneiform/proto-Elamite numerical notation). The commodity being counted is uncertain due to damage and unclear heading signs.
Reasoning ↓
Visual examination of the photograph shows the main inscribed face of a fragmentary clay tablet, broken along the lower-right and parts of the upper edge. The surface is worn but wedge impressions are visible in the upper portion; I can discern what appear to be several grouped strokes (consistent with numerical signs N01, i.e., the round impressions representing units) and rectangular/complex sign clusters in the upper registers, broadly consistent with the transliteration's M-series signs and the two instances of 2(N01). The lower portion of the inscribed face is missing entirely, and signs in the middle rows are eroded, making independent sign-by-sign verification of the M-series identifications impossible at this resolution. The reverse (lower image in the composite) appears entirely blank or too eroded to carry readable signs, which is consistent with a simple tally/administrative document. The side view shows the typical lenticular profile of early Uruk-period tablets. The museum number Sb 15348 / P009281 matches the Louvre's proto-Elamite holdings from Susa. Because the M-series sign identifications are specialist assignments from the CDLI proto-cuneiform/proto-Elamite sign lists and cannot be independently confirmed from the photograph at this resolution, and because the text is substantially broken, confidence is rated low.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 4.6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 15, 2026 · 1849 in / 964 out tokens
Transliteration
M157~a , M038~a M381 M388 M338~b# [...] , [...] [...] M242~ab# M380~b M048~c M218 , 2(N01)# [...] , 2(N01) M254~a M380~b# x [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 26S, 5038. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009281) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.