Position in chronology
MS 2357
About this tablet
This is one of the earliest kinds of written record, an account tablet from southern Iraq around 3100–3000 BCE. It may come from Umma, although that is not certain. Six numbered entries on the front each pair a count with a short group of signs, which are probably the names or titles of people or units. The back gives the grand total of 24. Proto-cuneiform was still a bookkeeping notation, not a way of writing sentences, so we can check the arithmetic but cannot say for sure what was being counted. It was most likely people or rations handed out by a temple household.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
An account of six entries. SZUBUR SZA3 is credited with 1, MASZ KUR ZATU773 with 7, and EN IB PIRIG with 3. SANGA is credited with 1, plus a small extra fraction or sub-unit. SZUBUR ZATU795 LAM is credited with 5 and KASZ DA with 7. One more line at the bottom of the front is broken off. On the back the scribe totals everything as 24, under the heading BA NIM, which may mean 'allotted' or 'distributed' and possibly refers to a place or person called NIM.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 1: 1 (unit): SZUBUR SZA3~a 2: 7 (units): MASZ KUR~a ZATU773~a 3: 3 (units): EN~a IB~a PIRIG~b1 4: 1 (unit), 3 (N57): SANGA~a 5: 5 (units): SZUBUR ZATU795 LAM~b 6: 7 (units): KASZ~c DA~a 7: [...] (broken) Reverse Total: 24 (2 tens + 4 units): BA NIM~a
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
1(N01) , SZUBUR SZA3~a1 7(N01) , MASZ KUR~a ZATU773~a 3(N01) , EN~a IB~a# PIRIG~b1 1(N01) , 3(N57) SANGA~a 5(N01) , SZUBUR# ZATU795 LAM~b 7(N01) , KASZ~c DA~a , [...] 2(N14) 4(N01) , BA NIM~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2357. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006025) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.