Such is the most probable explanation of the occurrence in Elam of inscriptions in the Old Babylonian language, written by native princes concerning purely domestic matters.  But a further question now suggests itself.  Assuming that this was the order in which events took place, are we to suppose that the first Semitic invaders of Elam found there a native population in a totally undeveloped stage of civilization?  Or did they find a population enjoying a comparatively high state of culture, different from their own, which they proceeded to modify and transform!  Luckily, we have not to fall back on conjecture for an answer to these questions, for a recent discovery at Susa has furnished material from which it is possible to reconstruct in outline the state of culture of these early Elamites.

This interesting discovery consists of a number of clay tablets inscribed in the proto-Elamite system of writing, a system which was probably the only one in use in the country during the period before the Semitic invasion.  The documents in question are small, roughly formed tablets of clay very similar to those employed in the early periods of Babylonian history, but the signs and characters impressed upon them offer the greatest contrast to the Sumerian and early Babylonian characters with which we are familiar.  Although they cannot be fully deciphered at present, it is probable that they are tablets of accounts, the signs upon them consisting of lists of figures and what are probably ideographs for things.  Some of the ideographs, such as that for “tablet,” with which many of the texts begin, are very similar to the Sumerian or Babylonian signs for the same objects; but the majority are entirely different and have been formed and developed upon a system of their own.

[Illustration:  230.jpg CLAY TABLET, FOUND AT SUSA, BEARING AN INSCRIPTION IN THE EARLY PROTO-ELAMITE CHARACTER.]

     The photograph is taken from M. de Morgan’s Delegation en
     Perse, Mem., t. vi, pi. 23.

On these tablets, in fact, we have a new class of cuneiform writing in an early stage of its development, when the hieroglyphic or pictorial character of the ideographs was still prominent.

[Illustration:  231.jpg CLAY TABLET, RECENTLY FOUND AT SUSA, BEARING AN INSCRIPTION IN THE EARLY PROTO-ELAMITE CHARACTER.]

     The photograph is reproduced from M. de Morgan’s Delegation
     en Perse, Mem., t. vi, pi. 22.

Although the meaning of the majority of these ideographs has not yet been identified, Pere Scheil, who has edited the texts, has succeeded in making out the system of numeration.  He has identified the signs for unity, 10, 100, and 1,000, and for certain fractions, and the signs for these figures are quite different from those employed by the Sumerians.

[Illustration:  231a.jpg Fractions]

The system, too, is different, for it is a decimal, and not a sexagesimal, system of numeration.