Position in chronology
MDP 17, 153
About this tablet
A small administrative clay tablet from Susa (in what is now southwest Iran), dating to the late fourth millennium BCE — among the very earliest written records in human history. Each line appears to record a small quantity (2 units) of some commodity or institution under a named category, with a final summary entry giving a higher numerical total. The proto-cuneiform script used here predates readable Sumerian by centuries; the signs represent categories of goods or persons that modern scholars can identify but often cannot yet pronounce or translate into words. This tablet is a piece of the ancient bureaucratic machinery that drove one of the world's first urban economies, tracking allocations or deliveries in a system that would eventually evolve into fully literate writing.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Translation · reference
Low confidence[ M327? ] , M388 | M106~2 + M288 | M386? M124 M218 M386? M240~e M096 M288~i , 2(N01) M124 M217 M259 M218 M288~i , 2(N01) M124 M352~n M254~a M096 M288~i , 2(N01) M219 M387~c M066 M288~i , 2(N01) M124 M096? M227 M066? M288~i , 2(N01) M124 M372 | M218 + M099 | M371 | M131 + M388 | x M218 M288~i , 2(N01) [damaged] M288~i , 2(N14) [Plain-sense rendering of numerical content:] Opening sign(s) uncertain. Entry 1 — [commodity/institution complex] … 2 units Entry 2 — [commodity/institution complex] … 2 units Entry 3 — [commodity/institution complex] … 2 units Entry 4 — [commodity/institution complex] … 2 units Entry 5 — [commodity/institution complex] … 2 units Entry 6 — [commodity/institution complex, partially damaged] … 2 units [Total/summary sign] — 2(N14) [= 20 units, or higher-order equivalent]
Source: engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation)
Translation · AI engine
read from photo[ M327? ] , M388 | M106~2 + M288 | M386? M124 M218 M386? M240~e M096 M288~i , 2(N01) M124 M217 M259 M218 M288~i , 2(N01) M124 M352~n M254~a M096 M288~i , 2(N01) M219 M387~c M066 M288~i , 2(N01) M124 M096? M227 M066? M288~i , 2(N01) M124 M372 | M218 + M099 | M371 | M131 + M388 | x M218 M288~i , 2(N01) [damaged] M288~i , 2(N14) [Plain-sense rendering of numerical content:] Opening sign(s) uncertain. Entry 1 — [commodity/institution complex] … 2 units Entry 2 — [commodity/institution complex] … 2 units Entry 3 — [commodity/institution complex] … 2 units Entry 4 — [commodity/institution complex] … 2 units Entry 5 — [commodity/institution complex] … 2 units Entry 6 — [commodity/institution complex, partially damaged] … 2 units [Total/summary sign] — 2(N14) [= 20 units, or higher-order equivalent]
6 uncertain terms ↓
- M288~i — Repeated qualifier or commodity sign; its precise semantic value (a type of goods, a person-category, a qualifier such as 'ration' or 'allocation') is not established. The '~i' variant notation indicates a specific sub-form whose distinction from the base sign is not yet semantically resolved.
- M218 — Functions as a subtotal or section-divider in parallel texts; may also carry commodity meaning. Cannot be translated as a word.
- N14 — Conventionally 10× N01 in sexagesimal counting, giving a total of 20 units, but the commodity-specific numerical system here could assign a different value; the actual magnitude is uncertain.
- M327? — Opening sign on obverse, read with a query in the transliteration; too damaged in the photo to confirm. May be a heading, institutional name, or date formula.
- |M106~2+M288|, |M218+M099|, |M131+M388| — Compound (ligature) signs; their combined semantic value is unknown beyond the individual components, which are themselves only partially decoded.
- M386?, M096?, M066? — Signs read with uncertainty in the transliteration (query marks); surface erosion prevents independent confirmation from the photograph.
Reasoning ↓
Photo examined directly. The obverse (upper image) shows a heavily worn, cracked clay surface with multiple rows of impressed and incised proto-cuneiform signs; surface erosion and a central crack running horizontally make many individual wedge clusters difficult to read with certainty. The numerical signs — small round impressions consistent with N01 (single units) and one larger impression consistent with N14 (higher-order unit) — are visible in the right-hand column and broadly confirm the transliteration's repeated '2(N01)' and final '2(N14)'. Complex sign clusters in the left-hand portions of each line are too eroded and small at this resolution to verify against individual M-numbers. The reverse (lower image) shows two round impressions (possibly numerical or seal-related) in the upper left and a single complex sign cluster in the centre, consistent with a summary or seal impression field; this matches the final summary line in the transliteration. The sign-list identifiers (M-numbers) follow the Englund–Grégoire MDP 17 / CDLI proto-Elamite / proto-cuneiform sign system; because proto-cuneiform signs of this period are only partially decoded, a word-for-word English translation is not possible — the rendering above reflects the structural logic (entries + total) rather than lexical content. Confidence is low because of surface damage, the intrinsic undecipherability of many proto-cuneiform signs, and the impossibility of verifying individual complex sign clusters from the available photograph.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 15, 2026 · 1993 in / 1297 out tokens
Why it matters
Transliteration
M327? , M388 |M106~2+M288| M386? M124 M218 M386? M240~e M096 M288~i# , 2(N01) M124 M217 M259 M218 M288~i , 2(N01) M124 M352~n M254~a M096 M288~i , 2(N01) M219 M387~c M066 M288~i , 2(N01) M124 M096? M227 M066? M288~i , 2(N01) M124 M372 |M218+M099| M371 |M131+M388| x M218 M288~i , 2(N01)# M288~i , 2(N14)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Proto-Elamite (ca. 3100-2900 BC)) — MDP 17, 153. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P008351) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation).
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.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.