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). Proto-Elamite has been known for more than 100 years.

What is proto-Elamite?

Writing phases

Basic Semantic Classification of Signary

History of decipherment

(the content of this article is in parts adopted from: Dahl, J. L., "Animal Husbandry in Susa during the Proto-Elamite Period" SMEA 47 (2005) 81-134 (PDF copy [7.7 MB]))

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of the Louvre tablets were published shortly after their discovery, only 150 - 200 tablets and fragments remain unpublished.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]

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peter Damerow and Robert K. Englund, The Proto-Elamite Texts from Tepe Yahya (= The American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin 39; Cambridge, MA, 1989).

P. Delugaz, and Helene Kantor, 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, 1996).

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

Robert K. Englund, "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.

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

Robert K. Englund, "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 a PDF copy.

Steve Farmer, Richard Sproat, and Michael Witzel, “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.

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

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

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

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

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

Piero Meriggi, La scritura proto-elamica. Parte Ia: La scritura e il contenuto dei testi (Rome, 1971).

Piero Meriggi, La scritura proto-elamica. Parte IIa: Catalogo dei segni (Rome, 1974).

Piero Meriggi, La scritura proto-elamica. Parte IIIa: Testi (Rome, 1974).

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

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

Daniel T. Potts, The Archaeology of Elam (Cambridge, UK, 1999).

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

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

M-J. Steve and H. Gasche, L’Acropolis de suse. Nouvelles fouilles (= Mémoires de la Délégation Archaéologique en Iran 44 (MDP 44); Paris 1971).

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

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

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