Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 111
About this tablet
One of the earliest written documents in human history — a small proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from southern Mesopotamia, dated to the Uruk period (roughly 3200–3000 BCE), before cuneiform had fully evolved into the wedge-based script we recognize. It records quantities of barley and possibly a fiber commodity such as thread or flax, entered in a ruled grid of cells using impressed circular and oval numerical signs. The left edge is broken away, leaving several entries incomplete. Tablets like this are the direct ancestors of all later accounting and literacy: anonymous scribes at early Mesopotamian institutions pressing numbers and commodity signs into wet clay to track grain and goods.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The main entry records a substantial quantity of barley — approximately four large measures plus fractions — followed by several further numerical entries, some of which are now broken away and unreadable. A separate entry records a smaller quantity associated with what appears to be a fiber commodity, possibly thread or flax. At least two entries are too damaged to read. The tablet is essentially a grain (and possibly textile fiber) ledger: a tally of quantities, probably tracking receipts or disbursements at a storage facility.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[ca. 4](N14) 2(N01) 3(N39~a) 1(N24) 1(N30~c) | barley [...] 1(N04) 1(N41) [...] | [...] 2(N18) 4(N03) 1(N30~c) 1(N39~a) 1(N24) 1(N28) | [mixed/qualified(?)] fiber/thread (GU~a) [...] | [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
4(N14)# 2(N01) 3(N39~a) 1(N24) 1(N30~c) , SZE~a [...] 1(N04) 1(N41) [...] , [...] 2(N18) 4(N03) 1(N30~c) 1(N39~a) 1(N24) 1(N28) , |HIx1(N57)| GU~a [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 111. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P325485) — 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.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.