MS 2446

~3100 BCE·Uruk Period·P006063

About this tablet

This is one of the earliest accounting documents in human history, dating to the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), likely from the ancient city of Umma in southern Iraq. It records quantities of commodities — including beer ingredients or rations, and small livestock such as sheep and goats — organized in a two-column tablet format typical of early Sumerian administration. The signs are among the very first writing ever devised, a proto-cuneiform system invented to track institutional resources. Tablets like this show that writing was born not from literature or religion, but from the practical need to count animals and goods.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

The tablet lists a series of allocations or inventory entries: 2 units associated with a building and a side-element; 2 units of water or beer and beer; 1 unit each of two uncertain commodity categories; 1 unit of MUD; 1 unit linking a commodity with a sky/heaven marker; and 2 units of a building with SI. A summary rubric closes the first section. The livestock section then records: 2 she-goats, 1 ewe, 3 rams, 1 of an uncertain category, and 2 goats — totaling 9 small sheep or young animals, again closed with a summary rubric. The rest of the signs in the rubric lines are too archaic and damaged to read with confidence.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Low confidence

2 — house (E2~b), DA~a 2 — water/beer (A), beer (KASZ~c) 1 — URI3~a, IB~a 1 — MUD 1 — KU~b1, AN 2 — house (E2~b), SI [subtotal/rubric:] LAGAB~a ZATU659 NAM2 RAD~a PA~a SZE~a A URI3~a IB~a 2 — she-goat (UD5~a) 1 — ewe (UTUA~a) 3 — adult male sheep/ram (UDUNITA~a) 1 — NUN~b 2 — goat (MASZ2) 9 — [young/small] sheep (UDU~a TUR#) [subtotal/rubric:] ZATU659 URI3~a IB~a

Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

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-4-6 (2026-05-18/v5-modern-rendering).

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~2050 BCE

Drehem Cattle-Distribution Tablet

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.

~3300 BCE

AoF 30, 238,1