Position in chronology
MS 2437
About this tablet
One of the oldest written documents in human history, dating to the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), this small clay tablet is a proto-cuneiform administrative record tracking groups of people — most likely female workers and dependents — alongside what may be cattle or labour categories. Such tablets are the earliest bureaucratic paperwork humanity produced, invented not for literature or religion but simply to count things. The repeated signs for 'female' and numerical tallies suggest a ration list or workforce register from a large temple or palace institution. At this period writing had only just been invented, and the signs are pictographic enough that we can recognise what they depict even if we cannot always be certain what they meant to their authors.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
3 women of a certain category, associated with a dog/servant and a cow. 2 women of the same category, with a hand-sign and a quality marker. 2 individuals of another category, with signs whose meaning is not fully recoverable. 2 more women listed under a further category marker. Grand total: 1 large unit plus 2 — a head-count summary at the bottom. The middle sections are partially damaged and some signs remain without a secure reading.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3 females, [sign ZATU628~a], dog/servant, cow 2 females, [sign ZATU628~a], hand, hand, [ME~a quality/category] 2 males(?), [SZUR2~b], [BU~a] 2 females(?), [DU], [EN2], [sign ZATU628~a], female 1(large unit) 2, total/head-count
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
3(N01) , SAL ZATU628~a UR~a AB2 2(N01) , SAL ZATU628~a SZU SZU ME~a 2(N01) , USZ~a SZUR2~b BU~a 2(N01) , DU EN2 ZATU628~a SAL 1(N34) 2(N01) , SAG
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2437. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006054) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-18/v5-modern-rendering).
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.