Position in chronology
MS 2358
About this tablet
A small Proto-Cuneiform accounting tablet from the very end of the Uruk period, around 3200–3000 BCE, possibly from the Umma area in southern Iraq. On the front, six entries each record one unit, apparently of barley, next to a short group of signs. Each group is probably the name or title of a person or office. The back gives a barley total and repeats the same group of four signs (KU₃ KI A PA, in reverse order on the back) that appears in the front's second column. That group is most likely the official or institution responsible for the account. This is one of the earliest kinds of written bookkeeping: the scribes had not yet recorded full sentences, only who got how much.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Six people or offices each receive one unit of grain. They are listed by short names that no one can yet read securely, one of them written with signs for 'sheep' and 'donkey'. On the back, the tablet records a total of three larger units of barley and names the group of signs that also appears on the front, probably the official or office in charge of the payout. The scribe records only amounts and names, with no verbs.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse, column i: 1. 1 (unit of grain): ŠU TUR PAP (personal name or designation) 2. 1: ŠE SI RU 3. 1: BU ŠE DU 4. 1: ŠE X AB₂ (one sign unread) 5. 1: UDU ANŠE 6. 1: AN EŠDA ŠE Obverse, column ii: 7. KU₃ KI A PA (heading or responsible official/institution) Reverse: 8. 3 (tens-unit): barley. 9. PA KI KU₃ A
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(N01) , SZU TUR PAP~a 1(N01) , SZE~a SI RU 1(N01) , BU~a SZE~a DU 1(N01) , SZE~a X AB2 1(N01) , UDU~a# ANSZE~c 1(N01) , AN ESZDA SZE~a , KU3~a KI A PA~a 3(N14) , SZE~a , PA~a KI KU3~a A
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2358. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006026) — 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.