Position in chronology
MS 2436
About this tablet
A very early accounting tablet in proto-cuneiform, the first stage of writing, probably from the Umma area of southern Iraq around 3100–3000 BCE. Its obverse is divided into many small boxes of signs and numbers, and the reverse repeats the same groups of signs, much like a closing summary. Most of these signs probably stood for officials, offices or institutions rather than connected words, so we cannot yet read the text as sentences. It shows administrators at the very start of writing already sorting people and goods into set categories.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is an early record naming one party with a string of signs (RAD, BU, SI, TE, KITI) and a second with another string (ZATU795, LAM, AN, MUŠ3, URU). It records a quantity written as two of one number sign plus one of another. It then counts two units for a party or office connected with 'salt' and a supervisor, and two units for another called SU. The back sums the account by repeating the same groups of signs, with a few added (RU, KI, HI, SIG). What the goods were and who the people were is still unclear.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[Obverse] [Entry/heading:] RAD BU SI TE KITI — ZATU795 LAM AN MUŠ3 URU (sign groups, probably personal or institutional designations; untranslated) 2(N15) 1(N02) (a quantity, recorded exactly as written); 2(N57): MUN (salt?) — PAP (supervisor / personnel category); 2(N57): SU [Reverse / summary] RAD KITI SI TE BU ZATU795 LAM RU KI HI KI URU AN MUŠ3 SIG RAD
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
, RAD~a BU~a SI TE KITI ZATU795 LAM~b AN MUSZ3~a URU~a1 2(N15) 1(N02) , 2(N57) MUN~a1 PAP~a 2(N57) SU~a , RAD~a KITI SI TE BU~a , ZATU795 LAM~b RU KI HI KI URU~a1 AN MUSZ3~a SIG RAD~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2436. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006053) — 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.