The Proto-Elamite script is a writing system used briefly during the early Bronze Age before the introduction of Elamite cuneiform. It remains largely undeciphered, except for various numbers.Monroe, M. Willis, et al., "Recent Progress in Deciphering Proto-Elamite", Near Eastern Archaeology 88.4, pp. 314-323, 2025
There are many similarities between the writing systems of the Proto-Elamite tablets and the contemporaneous proto-cuneiform tablets of the Uruk IV period in Mesopotamia. Both are relatively isolated. Singletons aside, tablets have been found at only five Proto-Elamite sites. For comparison, Proto-cuneiform tablets have only been found at Uruk, Jemdet Nasr, Khafajah, and Tell Uqair, and the vast majority of each type have been found at Susa and Uruk. The tablet blanks, the inscribing method, even the practice of using the reverse for summation, when needed, are the same. They serve the same basic function which is administrative accounting of goods in a centrally controlled society. From that base, there are also differences, the signs themselves being the most obvious but extending to smaller areas such as the order in which the tablet was inscribed, are clear. The many similarities between the numeric systems of Proto-cuneiform and Proto-Elamite have helped in understanding it. Proto-Elamite, in addition to the usual sexagesimal and base-120, also uses a decimal system.Friberg, Jöran, "Three Thousand Years of Sexagesimal Numbers in Mesopotamian Mathematical Texts", Archive for History of Exact Sciences, vol. 73, no. 2, pp. 183–216, 2019Friberg, Jöran, "The Early Roots of Babylonian Mathematics: II. Metrological Relations in a Group of Semi-Pictographic Tablets of the Jemdet Nasr Type, Probably from Uruk-Warka", Research Report, 1979-15; University of Göteborg, Department of Mathematics, Chalmers, 1978–79
Beginning around the 9th millennium BC, a token based system came into use in various parts of the ancient Near East. These evolved into marked tokens and later marked envelopes, often called clay bullae.Schmandt-Besserat, Denise, "The Envelopes That Bear the First Writing", Technology and Culture, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 357–85, 1980Schmandt-Besserat, Denise, "Decipherment of the Earliest Tablets", Science, vol. 211, no. 4479, pp. 283–85, 1981Schmandt-Besserat, Denise. Before writing: From counting to cuneiform, Vol. II, University of Texas Press, 1992Overmann, Karenleigh A., The Material Origin of Numbers: Insights from the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Piscataway, NJ, USA: Gorgias Press, Table 9.2, pp. 169-170, 2019 These are believed to be the basis of Proto-Elamite as well as proto-cuneiform (with many of the tokens, about two-thirds, having been found in Susa). Tokens remained in use after the development of proto-cuneiform and Proto-Elamite.Denise Schmandt-Besserat, "An Archaic Recording System and the Origin of Writing", Syro Mesopotamian Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1–32, 1977Denise Schmandt-Besserat, "An Archaic Recording System in the Uruk-Jemdet Nasr Period", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 83, no. 1, pp. 19–48, (Jan. 1979)Lieberman, Stephen J., "Of Clay Pebbles, Hollow Clay Balls, and Writing: A Sumerian View", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 84, no. 3, pp. 339–58, 1980Schmandt-Besserat, D., "Tokens at Susa", Oriens Antiquus 25(1–2), pp. 93–125, 1986
The earliest tablets contain only lists of numbers. They are found not only at Susa and Uruk, but also at sites without later Proto-Elamite and proto-cuneiform tablets, like Tell Brak, Habuba Kabira, Tepe Hissar, Godin Tepe and Jebel Aruda.Schmandt-Besserat, Denise, "The Earliest Precursor of Writing", Scientific American, vol. 238, no. 6, pp. 50–59, 1978Strommenger, Eva, "The Chronological Division of the Archaic Levels of Uruk-Eanna VI to III/II: Past and Present", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 84, no. 4, pp. 479–87, 1980 Hallo, William W., "Godin Tepe: The Inscriptions", Yale University, 2011Oates, Joan and Oates, David, "The Reattribution of Middle Uruk Materials at Brak". Leaving No Stones Unturned: Essays on the Ancient Near East and Egypt in Honor of Donald P. Hansen, edited by Erica Ehrenberg, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 145–154, 2002R. Dyson, "The relative and absolute chronology of Hissar H and the proto-Elamite of Northern Iran", In: Chronologie du Prochc Orient/Relative chrono-logics and absolute chronology 16,000–4,000 BC. CNRS International Symposium, Lyon France, 24–28 November 1986, 13AR Internat. Scr. 379, Oxford, pp. 647–677, 1987
Linear Elamite is attested much later, in the last quarter of the . It is uncertain whether the Proto-Elamite script was the direct predecessor of Linear Elamite, since it remains largely undeciphered, and a postulated relationship between the two is speculative.
Early on, similarities were noted between Proto-Elamite and the Cretan Linear A script.Brice, W., "A Comparison of the Account Tablets of Susa in the Proto-Elamite Script with Those of Hagia Triada in Linear A", KADMOS, 2(1), pp. 27–38, 1963
Corpus The Proto-Elamite writing system was used over a large area, from Susa in the west to Tepe Yahya in the east. The corpus consists of some 1600 tablets, the vast majority unearthed at Susa, where the first two tablets were found by Jacques de Morgan in the late 1800s.
Proto-Elamite tablets have been found at the following sites: Susa (more than 1600 tablets and fragments)de Mecquenem, R., "Notes Protoélamites", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 200–04, 1956Dahl, Jacob L., "Proto-Elamite Tablets and Fragments", Textes cunéiforme du Louvre 32, Khéops / Louvre Editions Publishing, Paris, 2019 Anshan, or Tall-I Malyan (33 tablets and fragments)Stolper, M., "Proto-Elamite texts from Tall-I Malyan”, in: KADMOS, 24(1–2), pp. 1–12, 1985 Tepe Yahya (27 tablets, tablet blanks found)Lamberg-Karlovsky, Clifford Charles, "Proto-Elamite account tablets from Tepe Yahya, Iran", Kadmos 10, pp. 97–9, 1971 Mutin, Benjamin, The Proto-Elamite Settlement and its Neighbors: Tepe Yahya Period IVC, ed. C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, Oxbow Books / American School of Prehistoric Research Publications, 2013 Peter Damerow and Robert K. Englund, "The Proto-Elamite Texts from Tepe Yahya", The American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin 39, Cambridge, MA, 1989Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C., "The Proto-Elamite Settlement at Tepe Yaḥyā", Iran, vol. 9, pp. 87–96, 1971C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, "The Early Bronze Age of Iran as seen from Tepe Yahya" (with Philip Kohl) Expedition, Vol. 13, Nos. 3–4, pp. 14–22, 1971 Tepe Sofalin (12 tablets and fragments) Dahl, J. L., Hessari, M., & Yousefi Zoshk, R., "The Proto-Elamite Tablets from Tape Sofalin", Iranian journal of archaeological studies, 2(1), pp. 57–73, 2012Hessari, Morteza, and Rouhollah Yosefi, "A Clay Bullae and Five Tablets From Tepe Sofalin, Rey Plain, Iran", Journal of Archaeology and Archaeometry 1.1, pp. 13–25, 2022 Tepe Sialk (5 tablets)Ghirshman, R., "Une tablette proto-élamite du plateau iranien", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 115–19, 1934Roman Ghirshman, "Fouilles de Sialk près de Kashan, 1933, 1934, 1937", vol. 1, Paul Geuthner, 1938 Ozbaki (one tablet) Madjidzadeh, Youssef, "Les fouilles d'Ozbaki (Iran). Campagnes 1998–2000", Paléorient, pp. 141–145, 2001 Shahr-e Sukhteh (one tablet)Amiet, Pierre, et al., "Phase 10 at Shahr-i Sokhta: Excavations in Square XDV and the Late 4th Millennium B.C. Assemblage of Sīstān", East and West, vol. 28, no. 1/4, pp. 9–31, 1978 Tall-e Geser (one numerical tablet fragment, not Proto-Elamite script)Alden, John R., et al., "Trade and Politics in Proto-Elamite Iran [and Comments and Reply]", Current Anthropology, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 613–40, 1982Caldwell, J. R., "Tell-i Ghazir", Reallexikon der Assyriologie 3 (5), pp. 348–355, 1986 Tepe Hissar (one tablet)
Glyphs found in Proto-Elamite texts are divided in numerical (with an N prefix) and text (with a M prefix). Of the 1000s of text glyphs in the current corpus, more than half are numerical. The meaning of a numerical glyph may depend on which system it is being used in, decimal (D), sexagesimal (S), bisexagesimal (B), or capacity (C). Born, Logan, et al., "Disambiguating Numeral Sequences to Decipher Ancient Accounting Corpora", Proceedings of the Workshop on Computation and Written Language (CAWL 2023), 2023Alimirzoev, A. N. and Yu. B. Yusifov, "On the decipherment of numerical signs of the Proto-Elamite script", Vestnik drevnej istorii, pp. 3-20, 1993 Yousefi, R., Afshari Salaki, H. & Etemadifar, D., "The Scale of Accounting: An Examination of High-Volume Numerical Records in Proto-Elamite Tablets from Susa hosted in Iran National Museum", Archaeological Research of Iran, 15(45), pp. 91-113, 2025
A significant number of Proto-Elamite tablets remain unpublished.Jacob L. Dahl, "Oxford Proto-Elamite", De Babylone aux routes d’Arabie, portrait d’une orientaliste: Hommage à Béatrice André-Salvini, pp. 85-88, 2025
Publications MDP 6 - V. Scheil, "Textes élamites-sémitiques (Troisième série)", Mémoires de La Délégation En Perse 6, Paris: Leroux, 1905 MDP 17 - V. Scheil, "Textes de Comptabilité Proto-Élamites (Nouvelle Série)", Mémoires de La Mission Archéologique de Perse, Tome 17, Paris, 1923 MDP 26 - V. Scheil, "Textes de Comptabilité Proto-Élamites (Troisième Série)", Mémoires de La Mission Archéologique de Perse, Tome 26., Paris, 1935 MDP 31 - Mecquenem, Roland de, and Marguerite Rutten, "Épigraphie Proto-Élamite ; Archéologie Susienne", Mémoires de La Délégation Archéologique En Iran, Tome 31. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1949 RA 50 - de MECQUENEM, R., "Notes Protoélamites", Revue d’Assyriologie et d’archéologie Orientale, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 200–04, 1956 TCL 32 - Dahl, J. L., "Proto-Elamite Tablets and Fragments", Textes Cunéiforme du Louvre 32, Paris: Khéops /Louvre éditions Publishing, 2019
Decipherment attempts
The first step in deciphering an unknown writing system is publishing the corpus and developing a proposed sign list.Gelb, I. J., and R. M. Whiting, "Methods of Decipherment", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, no. 2, pp. 95–104, 1975 The texts have now been mostly published but the sign list is still in progress. Proto-Elamite has many singleton signs (like early stages of proto-cuneiform) because texts are primarily consumed locally. There is disagreement over whether some signs are different or merely variants; but by 1974 enough of a consensus on the signs was reached that decipherment could advance. Piero Meriggi, "La scritura proto-elamica. Parte Ia: La scritura e il contenuto dei testi", Rome, 1971Piero Meriggi,"La scritura proto-elamica. Parte IIa: Catalogo dei segni", Rome, 1974Piero Meriggi, "La scritura proto-elamica. Parte IIIa: Testi", Rome, 1974Dahl, Jacob L., "The proto-Elamite writing system", in The Elamite World, pp. 383–396, 2018
In 2012, Dr Jacob Dahl of the University of Oxford announced a project to publish high-quality images of Proto-Elamite clay tablets online. He hopes that crowdsourcing by academics and amateurs working together will make progress.Breakthrough in world's oldest undeciphered writing – Sean Coughlan – 2012-10-25 BBC Nearly 1600 Proto-Elamite tablets are now on line.Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved 9 March 2015. Materials were put online on a wiki of the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative.