Position in chronology
FMB 27
About this tablet
This is a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Early Dynastic period, recording quantities of various commodities, animals (including cattle, GU4), copper (URUDU), grain allocations (GAN2), and possibly personnel or institutional categories under named officials (EN~a). The numerical notations — groups of N14 and N50 signs — are the standard accounting shorthand of the earliest Mesopotamian bureaucracies. Tablets like this one are among the earliest written records in human history, born not from literature but from the practical need to track who received what and how much. Its origin is uncertain, which is itself historically significant: many early Dynastic tablets now in private collections or museums entered the market without provenance documentation.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
An overseer (PA~a) and cattle (GU4?) head the account. Four units are recorded against an offering or institutional category (NESAG~a), a location (KI~a), a high official (EN~a), and several further designations including storage (GAR) and fate/title markers (NAM2, KAB). Five units are tallied under a field or enclosure (GAN2), a cattle-stall or institutional unit (AB~a), and another official. Smaller entries of three units each record additional categories — possibly a father-figure or elder title (AD~c?), a mouth or opening (KA~a), and a mound or ruin (DU6~a). A larger combined total of two large units and seven small ones is entered against a field and a vessel measure. Further lines record copper items, a package or tablet (TUM3 DUB~b), a serpent or hair-related term (MUSZ3~a), and several damaged entries closing with a 'great' qualifier (GAL~a) and a possible servant or slave category (SZUBUR?). The final lines are too damaged to read fully.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our enginePA~a GU4(?) 4(N14) — NESAG~a, KI~a, EN~a, NAM2, KAB, GAR 5(N14) — GAN2, AB~a, X, EN~a(?) 3(N14) — X, AD~c(?) 3(N14) — KA~a, DU6~a 2(N50) 7(N14)(?) — GAN2, |SILA3~a×DUG~a| [X] — IB~a, MASZ, URUDU~a [X] — TUM3, DUB~b [X] — MUSZ3~a, X 2(N14) — GISZ×SZU2~a, X [...] 2(N14) — BU~a# [...] 2(N14) — X, BU~a# [...] 4(N14) — GAL~a, X, SZUBUR(?) [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
, PA~a GU4? 4(N14) , NESAG~a1 KI~a EN~a NAM2 KAB GAR 5(N14) , GAN2 AB~a X EN~a? 3(N14) , X AD~c? 3(N14) , KA~a DU6~a 2(N50) 7(N14)? , GAN2 |SILA3~axDUG~a| , IB~a MASZ URUDU~a , TUM3 DUB~b , MUSZ3~a X 2(N14) , GISZxSZU2~a X [...] 2(N14) , BU~a# [...] 2(N14) , X BU~a# [...] 4(N14) , GAL~a X SZUBUR? [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — FMB 27. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Bodmer Museum, Cologny, Switzerland (P427655) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.