Proto-Elamite is the last un-deciphered writing system from the Ancient Near East with a substantial number of sources (more than 1600 published texts). It was used for a relatively short period around 3000 BC across what is today Iran. Proto-Elamite is a derived writing system originating from the Uruk invention of writing in southern Mesopotamia during the middle of the 4th millennium BC. Scribes in Susa in southwestern Iran took over a majority of the numerical signs as well as many of the numerical systems from the older proto-cuneiform system.

What is proto-Elamite?

Writing phases

Basic Semantic Classification of Signary

History of decipherment

There are more than 1600 texts and fragments in museums around the world. The majority of the texts are in the Louvre Museum, Paris, and the National Iranian Museum, Teheran.

Click here to go to the CDLI page for this tablet.

The majority of the Louvre tablets were published shortly after their discovery, only 150 - 200 tablets and fragments remain unpublished. The first two proto-Elamite tablets were published in 1900, by Vincent Scheil (as MDP 2, 130 and 131), they were later republished as MDP 6, 399 and 4996, in 1905. The majority of the tablets in the National Iranian Museum were published in MDP 26.

List of publications of proto-Elamite tablets:

198 tablets published in MDP 6.

490 tablets published in MDP 17.

485 tablets published in MDP 26.

170 tablets published in MDP 26S.

50 tablets published in MDP 31.

15 tablets published in RA 50.

The published copies are not always very reliable. Generally speaking MDP 17 and MDP 26S ranks among the better of the early publications. The early publications were all accompanied by sign-lists. As expected the number of signs grew with each text publication, and the sign-lists in the MDP volumes testify to this. However, recent collations and grapho-tactical analysis has brought the number of proto-Elamite signs down to about 1200.

Work is currently under way to publish the remaining proto-Elamite tablets in the Louvre, as well as to re-publish the previously published texts.

In the course of this work all of the Louvre proto-Elamite tablets have been collated and transliterated by J. Dahl. These transliterations are available at the CDLI.

Click here for a list of all proto-Elamite texts in the CDLI catalogue

A revised version of Meriggi's sign-list was used to complete these transliterations.

• P. Meriggi, La scrittura proto-elamica. Parte IIa: Catalogo dei segni (Rome 1974)

• Download a copy of J. Dahl's working sign list (30 MB, zip archive]

• Download a copy of J. Dahl's working sign files, in Adobe EPS format (128 MB, zip archive]

This bibliography is maintained by Kathryn Kelley, graduate student at the University of Oxford. Please send additions directly to kathryn.kelley@wolfson.ox.ac.uk.

Alden, J.R.

1982. “Trade and Politics in Proto-Elamite Iran,” in: Current Anthropology Vol. 23, No.6,December 1982, 613 – 640.

1987. "The Susa III Period" in F. Hole, ed.,The Archaeology of Western Iran: Settlement and Society from Prehistory to the Islamic Conquest . 157-169.

Alimirzoev, A.N. and Yu. B. Yusifov.

1993. "On the decipherment of numerical signs of the Proto-Elamite script". Vestnik drevnej istorii. 3-20.

Amiet, Pierre.

1972. Glyptique susienne, Volume 1 – 2 (= Mémoires de la Délégation Archaéologique en Iran 43; Paris.

Amiet, Pierre, Maurizio Tosi, and Piero Meriggi.

1978. "Phase 10 at Shahr-i Sokhta: Excavations in Square XDV and the Late 4th Millennium B.C. Assemblage of Sīstān." East and West 28 (1/4) (December 1), 9-31.

Le Breton, Louis.

1957. "Early Period at Susa, Mesopotamian Relations." Iraq 19 (2).

Le Brun, A.

1978. "La glyptique du niveau 17B de l’acropole (campagne de 1972). " Cahiers de la D.A.F.I. (CahDAFI) Paris.

1971. “Recherches stratigraphiques a l’acropole de Suse, 1969-1971,” in Cahiers de la Délégation archaéologique Française en Iran 1 (= CahDAFI 1; Paris) 163 – 216.

Legrain,Leon.

1921. Empreintes de cachets élamites (=Mémoires de la Mission Archaéologique de Perse 16 (MDP 16); Paris.)

Bulgarelli, Grazia Maria.

1979. "The Lithic Industry of Tepe Hissar at the Light of Recent Excavation." South Asian Archaeology (1977): 39-54.

Caldwell, J.R.

1968. "Tell-i Ghazir." Reallexikon der Assyriologie 3 (5): 348–355.

Carter, E., and M.W. Stolper.

1984. Elam: surveys of political history and archaeology. Vol. 25. Univ of California Press.

Corsini, Marco.

1986. Geroglifico del disco di Festo, Lineare A, geroglifico B, proto-elamico. Tre decifrazioni. Roma: Istituto Bibliografico Napoleone S.r.l.

Cuyler Young, T.

1972. "Recent Excavations at Godin Tepe." Memorial Volume of the Vth International Congress on Iranian Art and Archaeology, Tehran April 1968 1: 204-210.

Dahl, Jacob L.

2002. "proto-Elamite Sign Frequencies," in Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin (CDLB) 2002:1. Download a PDF copy

2005."Complex Graphemes in Proto-Elamite," in Cuneiform Digital Library Journal(CDLJ) 2005:3. Download a PDF copy

2005. "Animal Husbandry in Susa during the Proto-Elamite Period" SMEA 47 (2005) 81-134 (PDF copy [7.7 MB])

Damerow, Peter.

1988. Zur protoelamischen Schriftentwicklung presented at the 4. Workshop über begriffsentwicklung in der Babylonischen Mathematik, Berlin, Max Planck Institut für Bildungsforschung.

2006. “The Origins of Writing as a Problem of Historical Epistemology,” in Cuneiform Digital Library Journal (CDLJ) 2006:1. Download a PDF copy

Damerow, Peter, and Robert K. Englund.

1989. The Proto-Elamite Texts from Tepe Yahya (= The American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin 39; Cambridge, MA.

Delugaz, P., and Helene Kantor.

1996. Choga Mish. Volume I, The First Five Seasons of Excavations 1961-1971. Part 1: Text; Part 2: Plates, Abbas Alizadeh, ed. = OIP 101; Chicago, Illinois.

Dittmann, R.

1986. "Susa in the Proto-Elamite Period and Annotations on the Painted Pottery of Proto- Elamite Khuzestan." Gamdat Nasr: Period or Regional Style: 171–198.

Dollfus, Geneviève.

1983. Tepe Djowi. Vol. 13. Cahiers de la Délégation archéologique française en Iran: Association Paléorient.

Dyson, Robert H.

1968. “Early Work on the Acropolis at Susa. The Beginning of Prehistory in Iraq and Iran,” Expedition 10/4. 21-34.

Englund, Robert K.

1996. "The Proto-Elamite Script," in: Peter Daniels and William Bright, eds. The World's Writing Systems (1996). New York/Oxford, pp. 160-164. Download a PDF copy.

1998. "Elam iii. Proto-Elamite," in Encyclopaedia Iranica VIII/3 (1998). Costa Mesa, CA, pp. 325-330. Download a PDF copy.

2004."The State of Decipherment of Proto-Elamite," in: Stephen Houston, ed. The First Writing:Script Invention as 
History and Process (2004). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 100-149. Download aPDF copy.

Farmer, Steve, Richard Sproat, and Michael Witzel.

2004. “The Collapse of the Indus-Script Thesis: The Myth of a Literate Harappan Civilization,” in Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies (EJVS) Vol. 11, Issue 2, 19-57(2004). Download a PDF copy.

Friberg, Jöran .

1978. The Third Millennium Roots of Babylonian Mathematics I-II (Göteborg, 1978-79).

Hakemi, Ali.

1972. Catalogue de L'Exposition: Lut. Xabis-(Shahdad). Festival de le culture et des arts.

Harper, P.O., J. Aruz, F. Tallon, Holly Pittman, Pierre Amiet, and Matthew Stolper.

1992. "The Proto-Elamite Period". In: The Royal City of Susa: Ancient Near Eastern Treasures in the Louvre, 69-80. Metropolitan museum of art.

Hurst, Barbara, and Barbara Lawn.

1984. "University of Pennsylvania Radiocarbon Dates XXII." Radiocarbon 26 (2): 212-240.

Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C.

1973. "Urban Interaction on the Iranian Plateau: Excavations at Tepe Yahya 1967-1973." read 14 November 1973, Albert Reckitt Archaeological Lecture,British Academy.

Meriggi, Piero.

1969. “Altsumerische und Proto-Elamische Bilderschrift,” in: Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 119/1 (1969) 156 – 163.

1971. La scritura proto-elamica. Parte Ia: La scritura e il contenuto dei testi Rome.

1974. La scritura proto-elamica. Parte IIa: Catalogo dei segni Rome.

1974. La scritura proto-elamica. Parte IIIa: Testi Rome.

De Mecquenem, Roland.

1949. Épigraphie proto-élamite (= Mémoires de la Mission Archaéologique en Iran 31 (MDP 31); Paris.)

De Morgan, Jacques.

1900. Recherches archéologie (= Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse 1 (MDP 1); Paris.)

1905. Recherches archéologie (= Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse 7 (MDP 7); Paris.)

Nicholas, I.M.

1981. "Investigating an ancient suburb." Expedition 23 (3): 39–47.

1987. "The function of bevelled-rim bowls: a case study at the TUV Mound, Tal-e Malyan,Iran." Paléorient 13 (2): 61–72.

Porada, Edith.

1969. "Iranian Art and Archaeology. A Report of the Fifth International Congress, 1968." Archaeology 22: 54-65.

Potts, Daniel T.

1999. The Archaeology of Elam Cambridge, UK.

Scheil, Vincent.

1923. Textes de comptabilité proto-élamites (= Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse 17 (MDP 17); Paris.)

1935. Texte de comptabilité (= Mémoires de la Mission Archaéologique en Perse 26 (MDP 26 and MDP 26); Paris.)

Steve, M-J, and H. Gasche.

1971. L’Acropolis de suse. Nouvelles fouilles (= Mémoires de la Délégation Archaéologique en Iran 44 (MDP 44); Paris.)

Stolper, Matthew.

1992. “Account Tablet,” in: Harper, P. et. al. eds., The Royal City of Susa, Ancient Near Eastern Treasures in the Louvre New-York.

1977. "Preliminary Report on Texts from Tal-i Malyan, 1971-1974." 89-100. Tehran.

1978. "Inscribed Fragments from Khuzestan." Cahiers de la Délégation archaéologique Française en Iran/ Kadmos Zeitschrift für vor-und frühgriechische Epigraphik 8: 89.

1985. “Proto-Elamite texts from Tall-I Malyan,” in: KADMOS XXIV Berlin / New-York.

Sumner, W.

1974. “Excavations at Tall-i Malyan, 1971-72.” Iran 12 (January 1): 155-180.doi:10.2307/4300508.

1976. “Excavations at Tall-i Malyan (Anshan) 1974.” Iran 14: 103–115.

1986. "Proto-Elamite Civilization in Fars" in U. Finkbeiner and W. Röllig, Eds. Gamdat Nasr: Period or Regional Style, Wiesbaden. pp. 199-211.

Tucci, Giuseppe.

1977. La città bruciata del deserto salato / testi di Basaglia .. Ist. Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente.

Vallat, François

1971. “Les documents epigraphiques de l’acropole (1969-1971),” in: Cahiers de la Délégation archaéologique Française en Iran 1 (CahDAFI 1; Paris).

1973. “Les Tablettes Proto-Elamites de l’Acropole (Campagne 1972).” Cahiers de la delegation archeologique francaise en Iran III: 93-105.

1978. “Le matériel épigraphique des couches 18 à 14 de l’Acropole.” Paleofrient Paris 4 (1): 193-195.

Weiss, Harvey, and T. Cuyler Young.

1975. “The Merchants of Susa Godin V and Plateau-Lowland Relations in the Late Fourth Millennium B.C.” Iran 13 (January 1): 1-17. doi:10.2307/4300522.

Whitcomb, Donald.

1966. The Proto-Elamite Period at Tall-i Ghazir, Iran. B.A., Emory University.

Wright, HT.

1987. “The Susiana Hinterland during the era of primary state formation.” in F. Hole, ed., The Archaeology of Western Iran: Settlement and Society from Prehistory to the Islamic Conquest, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC: 141–155.