Position in chronology
MS 2431
About this tablet
An administrative account in the earliest form of writing, proto-cuneiform, from southern Mesopotamia around 3200–3000 BCE and possibly from the Umma region. It tallies units under short labels. Some labels may be people or offices, such as the high-status EN, and others may be goods or categories. The reverse gives a grand total. The entries add up exactly to the reverse total, which shows early scribes already cross-checking their sums. The photograph shows many more cases and signs than the brief transliteration records, so this reading covers only part of what is on the tablet.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
An itemized tally. One unit goes to the category SIG RAD. Five go to BA, nine to GI and eleven to the EN, an official of high rank. One goes to the KU3 of the institution's house. A further six are listed with no written label. The total on the back is thirty-two, together with a separate small count of three N57 units. The summary is filed under MUN (probably salt), DU, TE and SIG RAD. What exactly was being counted, and who these groups were, is not spelled out.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse (as transliterated): 1. 1 (N57-unit): SIG RAD 2. 5: BA 3. 9: GI 4. 11: EN 5. 1: KU3 of the E2 (house/institution) 6. 6 (N02): [entry without a written label] Reverse (total): 7. 32; 1 (N57), 2 (N57): MUN, DU, TE, SIG RAD (No further lines are given in the transliteration.)
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(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-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.