Position in chronology
MDP 31, 007
About this tablet
An accounting tablet from Susa in southwestern Iran, written around 3100 BCE in the Proto-Elamite script — a writing system that has never been deciphered. What we can read with certainty are the numbers: six entries, each pairing an unreadable commodity sign with a measured quantity, probably of grain or another foodstuff, under a heading sign. Documents like this show a fully functioning bureaucracy at Susa keeping precise accounts even though we can no longer name the goods or the people involved.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a ledger with a heading and six line items. The heading names an account or category we can no longer read. Then come the entries: one commodity at 2 large units and 3 fractional units; a second item at smaller fractional amounts; the same or a related commodity again in slightly different measures; another item at 1 large unit plus a fraction; a compound item at two small fractional amounts; and a final entry of the recurring commodity in small fractions. The goods themselves are written in signs whose meanings are lost, but the quantities — probably measures of grain or similar staples — are recorded exactly. The back of the tablet is blank.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Header) M247~d. (Entry 1) M297~bc: 2(N01) 3(N39B). (Entry 2) M001+M379~d (ligature): 1(N24) 2(N30C). (Entry 3) M297~b: 1(N24@b) 2(N30C@b). (Entry 4) M314: 1(N01) 1(N39B). (Entry 5) M003~b+M379~c (ligature): 1(N39B) 1(N24). (Entry 6) M297~b: 1(N39B@b) 1(N24@b). The signs M247, M297, M314, M001, M003 and M379 are undeciphered Proto-Elamite signs; the N-numbers are numerals of the Proto-Elamite capacity/fraction system, given here exactly as written. The reverse of the tablet is uninscribed.
Our translation engine — Fable 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.
Transliteration
M247~d , M297~bc# , 2(N01) 3(N39B) |M001+M379~d| , 1(N24) 2(N30C) M297~b# , 1(N24@b) 2(N30C@b) M314 , 1(N01)# 1(N39B) |M003~b+M379~c| , 1(N39B) 1(N24)#? M297~b# , 1(N39B@b) 1(N24@b)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 31, 007. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009347) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.