Position in chronology
MS 2497
About this tablet
One of the oldest accounting documents in human history, this small clay tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3200–3000 BCE) records barley allocations to named officials, institutions, and perhaps commodity categories. The entries list quantities in a proto-cuneiform numerical system — different sign-shapes pressed into the clay represent different orders of magnitude — followed by the commodity sign for barley and an identifier such as a temple administrator, a fish-related institution, or a goat account. The tablet closes with what appear to be subtotals and a grand total, showing that even at the very dawn of writing, record-keepers were already summing columns. It is a window into the moment when accounting needs drove the invention of writing itself.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records barley disbursements to several named parties: a large allocation to Šubur, a slightly smaller one to a fish-related official or institution called Zag-fish, a portion to the temple administrator, quantities tied to a goat account and to an entry labelled HI U4 (meaning uncertain), and a city barley entry. The scribe then totalled everything up: first a running subtotal, then a final grand total at the bottom. The rest of the reverse is largely numerical summary. Several lines on the reverse are too damaged or terse to read with confidence.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine8 large units of barley — ŠUBUR 7 large units, 4 small units of barley — ZAG-fish [official/institution] 3 large units of barley — temple administrator (SANGA) 5 large units of barley — [ZATU773] goat(s) 5 large units of barley — HI U4 [city?] — barley 1 very large unit, 7 large units, 4 small units — barley [subtotal] 1 [highest-order unit], 4 [intermediate units] — 1 very large unit, 2 [large units], 1 large unit, 4 small units — barley [grand total]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
8(N14) , SZE~a SZUBUR 7(N14) 4(N01) , SZE~a ZAG~a KU6~a 3(N14) , SZE~a SANGA~a 5(N14) , SZE~a ZATU773~b MASZ 5(N14) , SZE~a HI U4 , URU~a1 SZE~a 1(N34) 7(N14) 4(N01) , SZE~a 1(N46) 4(N19) , 1(N34) 2(N45) 1(N14) 4(N01) , SZE~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2497. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006064) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-18/v5-modern-rendering).
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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.