Position in chronology
MDP 31, 030
About this tablet
A proto-Elamite accounting tablet from Susa in southwestern Iran, written around 3100–2900 BCE in a script that has never been fully deciphered. What can be read are the numbers: a series of entries, each counting two of something — likely goods, animals, or workers designated by the still-unreadable signs — followed by a grand total of twenty-two. It is a bookkeeper's record from one of the world's earliest administrative systems, and a reminder that we can often read ancient numbers long before we can read ancient words.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a running account. A header opens the list, and then come seven line-items, each recording a quantity of two — two of one thing, two of another, and so on down the column. The commodities themselves are written in signs we can no longer read, so we know how many but not of what. The bottom line, partly broken, gives the sum: twenty-two units in all. Several entries are damaged, and the identifying signs throughout are lost to us, but the arithmetic of the ledger survives intact.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Header) [...]-M383-[...] (compound sign, entry heading; no numeral) M376 M388 M352 M320 M371 ... , 2 (units) ... M371 , 2 (units) M124 ... , 2 (units) ... M218 , 2 (units) ... M242 M096 , 2 (units) ... , 2 (units) ... , 2 (units) [...] , 22 (units) — total: 2 tens and 2 units (The signs M376, M388, M352, M320, M371, M124, M218, M242, and M096 are proto-Elamite signs whose meanings remain undeciphered; only the numerals can be read with confidence.)
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.
Engine notes
read from photo6 uncertain terms ↓
- M376, M388, M352~o, M320~n, M371 — Proto-cuneiform or proto-Elamite sign designations from the CDLI sign list. Their commodity or administrative referents are not established for this specific text; they may denote a type of goods, a personal name, or an institutional heading.
- M124~a — Sign uncertain in the transliteration (marked #); could be a commodity qualifier or classifier. Not independently verifiable from the photograph.
- M218 — Inferred as a subtotal or section marker from parallels; its precise function here is not confirmed.
- M242~ab, M096 — Both marked uncertain (#?) in the transliteration; meanings not established for this text or Uruk-period proto-Elamite generally.
- 2(N14) 2(N01) — Final entry likely represents a summary total. If N14 = 10× N01 in the applicable counting system, total would be 22 units; but the numerical system applied to this commodity is not confirmed, so the exact total is uncertain.
- |X+M383+X| — The heading sign complex is damaged on both sides (X = unreadable sign); its administrative or commodity meaning cannot be recovered from surviving signs.
Reasoning ↓
The photo shows a small, roughly rectangular clay tablet (museum number Sb 06325 visible on the edge label) with multiple horizontal ruled lines dividing the obverse into register-like rows. The surface is moderately worn — wedge impressions are shallow and some areas show surface erosion and minor chipping at the upper-right corner and lower edge. Impressed circular numerals (N01 type) are visible at the right side of most rows, consistent with the transliteration's repeated '2(N01)' entries. The larger circular impression in the penultimate/final row plausibly corresponds to the 2(N14) noted in the transliteration. The qualifying/commodity signs in the left portions of each row are difficult to read at this resolution: some wedge clusters are discernible but individual sign identities cannot be securely confirmed visually. The reverse (lower half of the composite photo) is smooth and uninscribed, consistent with standard short Uruk-period administrative tablets. The transliteration relies heavily on 'x' (unreadable) and '#' (uncertain) markers, reflecting the genuine difficulty of the text; my photo reading is consistent with this level of uncertainty. No standard transliteration tradition or specific parallel text can be cited to resolve the damaged signs.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 4.6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 16, 2026 · 2233 in / 973 out tokens
Transliteration
|X+M383+X| , M376 M388 M352~o? M320~n M371 x x , 2(N01)# x M371 , 2(N01) M124~a# x x , 2(N01) x x M218# , 2(N01)# x x M242~ab#? M096#? , 2(N01) x x , 2(N01) x x x , 2(N01)# [...] , 2(N14)# 2(N01)#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 31, 030. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P009370) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
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.