Position in chronology
MDP 31, 025
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa, in southwestern Iran, written around 3100–2900 BCE in one of the world's still-undeciphered scripts. A bookkeeper listed quantities of goods under pictographic category signs whose meanings are lost, but the numbers survive clearly — and the two largest entries (38 and 25) add up exactly to the 63 recorded in the summary line, showing the accountant's arithmetic checks out five thousand years later. It is a window into a sophisticated administrative economy that flourished alongside, but independently of, early Mesopotamian writing.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a ledger. The top of the account is broken, but the first readable entry records 38 units of one commodity, then 25 more of the same, followed by smaller lots of other goods: 3 units of one, 5 of another, 5 of a third, 7 of a fourth, and 10 of a fifth. A running total then states 63 units — exactly the sum of the two big entries — booked under a combined category heading. On the back, the clerk repeats or carries over several entries: 3 units, 7 units, 10 units, and 5 units of the same goods listed on the front. We cannot name the commodities, because the proto-Elamite script has never been deciphered, but the arithmetic is intact.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) [... (commodity) M278~f]: [3(N14)] 8(N01) — [3]8 units (commodity) M278~f: 2(N14) [5(N01)] — 2[5] units (commodity) M278+1(N24): 3(N01) — 3 units (commodity) M283~a1: 5(N01) — 5 units (commodity) M276~e: 5(N01) — 5 units (commodity) M290~a: 7(N01) — 7 units (commodity) M064~a: 1(N14) — 10 units (summary line) M228~gb, M278~f, M351+1(N14): 1(N34) 3(N01) — 63 units (reverse) (commodity) M278+1(N24): [3(N01)] — [3] units (commodity) M290~a: 7(N01) — 7 units (commodity) M064~a: 1(N14) — 10 units (commodity) M276~e: 5(N01) — 5 units
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
[... M278~f?] , [3(N14)] 8(N01)# M278~f , 2(N14) [5(N01)] [|M278+1(N24)|] , 3(N01)# M283~a1 , 5(N01) M276~e , 5(N01) M290~a# , 7(N01) M064~a , 1(N14) M228~gb M278~f |M351+1(N14)| , 1(N34) 3(N01) |M278+1(N24)| , [3(N01)] M290~a , 7(N01) M064~a , 1(N14) M276~e , 5(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 31, 025. 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 (P009365) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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