Position in chronology
MS 2431
About this tablet
This is a proto-cuneiform economic tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3350–3000 BCE), among the very earliest writing in human history, when scribes recorded quantities of goods using pictographic word-signs and numerical notations rather than connected sentences. The surviving lines tally small amounts of commodities — reed, salt, silver, and possibly wool — alongside references to an EN (a high-status lord or temple official) and a storehouse (e2), suggesting this was an internal account of goods received, held, or disbursed by an early temple or administrative institution, possibly at or near Umma. Because the script is at the very threshold of writing, many individual signs remain only provisionally identified even by specialists.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This looks like a short receipt or stock tally from one of the earliest bookkeeping systems ever devised. It lists small quantities of goods next to a series of numbers: one unit of wool (or possibly brick) tied to an uncertain sign; five units that were handed out or allotted; nine units of reed; two units credited to or under the authority of the 'EN' — a temple lord or high official; one unit of silver assigned to a storehouse; six units recorded on their own; and finally a larger tally — three plus two, then one plus two more — of salt that was delivered or moved, again linked to that same uncertain sign and to wool. In short: an ancient warehouse or temple clerk jotting down what came in, what went out, and to whom, using a script barely a few centuries old at the time.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 1(N57) — sig [wool/brick?] — rad (uncertain sign/title) 2. 5(N01) — ba [disbursed] 3. 9(N01) — gi [reed] 4. 1(N14) 1(N01) — en [lord/high official] 5. 1(N01) — ku3 [silver/metal] of the e2 [storehouse] 6. 6(N02) 7. 3(N14) 2(N01), 1(N57) 2(N57) — mun [salt] — du [delivered/in transit] — te — sig — rad
Our translation engine — Sonnet 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(N57) SIG RAD~a 5(N01) , BA# 9(N01) , GI 1(N14) 1(N01) , EN~a 1(N01) , KU3~a E2~a# 6(N02)# , 3(N14) 2(N01) , 1(N57) 2(N57) MUN~a1 DU TE SIG RAD~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2431. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006048) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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.