ABSTRACT
The proto-Elamite texts, the conventional name given to the earliest distinctively non-Uruk texts from Iran, share a number of features with the earlier Uruk texts, such as the shape and use of most of the numerical signs, and the technique of writing. Proto-Elamite remains largely undeciphered, and a true decipherment, in the linguistic sense of the word is unlikely to ever be achieved given the feeble link between writing and speech at this early point in the history of writing. The date of the loan of writing from the Uruk culture by scribes in Iran writing in the indigenous writing system proto-Elamite is equally difficult to pinpoint. The proto-Elamite texts can be divided into a number of groups that relate to chronological distribution rather than geographical distribution or the content of the texts. When writing emerged in Iran again it was in the form of cuneiform, used first to write Sumerian and Akkadian, and only secondarily the native language Elamite.
