Position in chronology
MS 2446
About this tablet
This is a small proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3200–3000 BCE), one of humanity's earliest written documents, likely from the Umma region of southern Iraq. It is a tally of livestock and commodities — she-goats, rams, male goats, sheep, along with beer, water, and grain — each recorded with a numeral and a sign group, evidently tracking goods moving through or belonging to an institutional household (an 'E2', house or estate). The final entries, with larger sheep counts and repeated marker signs, suggest a closing or summary tally rather than a fresh category. Texts like this represent accounting, not narrative — the earliest bureaucratic paperwork of Mesopotamian city administration.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is an inventory or receipt listing goods and animals tied to some institutional household. It records: 2 units of something belonging to 'the house, side (annex)'; 2 units of water and beer; 1 unit each of a standard/emblem item, a red or blood-colored item, and a sky/divine-marked item; and 2 more units linked again to 'the house' and to horn. A summary-style line follows, bundling together several category markers along with grain and water and the recurring 'standard' sign — probably a subtotal or heading for what follows. The list then turns fully to livestock: 2 she-goats, 1 of an unclear category, 3 rams, 1 of another unclear category, 2 goats, and finally 9 sheep — described as small/young — again tagged with the recurring emblem markers. In short: a herder's or steward's tally of small livestock and a few goods (grain, beer, water), organized under institutional headings whose exact bureaucratic meaning is now lost to us.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1: (numeral) E2~b (house/estate), DA~a (side/adjoining) — 2: (numeral) A (water), KASZ~c (beer) — 1: (numeral) URI3~a (standard/emblem), IB~a — 1: (numeral) MUD (blood/red-copper[?]) — 1: (numeral) KU~b1, AN (sky/divine marker) — 2: (numeral) E2~b (house/estate), SI (horn) — (summary line, no numeral): LAGAB~a, ZATU659, NAM2, RAD~a, PA~a, SZE~a (barley), A (water), URI3~a (standard/emblem), IB~a — 2: (numeral) UD5~a (she-goats) — 1: (numeral) UTUA~a — 3: (numeral) UDUNITA~a (rams / male sheep) — 1: (numeral) NUN~b — 2: (numeral) MASZ2 (goats) — 9: (numeral) UDU~a (sheep), TUR (small/young[?]), ZATU659, URI3~a (standard/emblem), IB~a
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
2(N01)# , E2~b DA~a 2(N01) , A KASZ~c 1(N01) , URI3~a IB~a 1(N01) , MUD 1(N01) , KU~b1 AN 2(N01) , E2~b SI , LAGAB~a ZATU659 NAM2 RAD~a PA~a SZE~a A URI3~a IB~a 2(N01) , UD5~a 1(N01) , UTUA~a 3(N01) , UDUNITA~a 1(N01) , NUN~b 2(N01) , MASZ2 9(N01) , UDU~a TUR# ZATU659 URI3~a IB~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2446. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006063) — 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.