Position in chronology
MS 2501
About this tablet
This is a small proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), one of the very earliest forms of writing known to humanity. It records quantities of various commodities — some identifiable, many still opaque to modern scholars — under what appears to be an official title related to a sanctuary or temple administration (the SANGA sign, associated with a cultic administrator). The tablet belongs to the class of earliest bureaucratic records from ancient Mesopotamia, when writing was invented specifically to track goods and institutions, not yet to record language in full. Many of the sign values remain uncertain because proto-cuneiform has not been fully deciphered and some signs are unique to a handful of tablets.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records a series of commodity allocations or tallies managed by a temple official. On the front face: 8 units of one item (possibly dogs or a wood product), then smaller quantities of bundled goods and unidentified materials, followed by entries under an administrative or priestly office. On the reverse: 6 large units of a commodity associated with eggs or roe, plus single units each of a field-product, a container or tool, and further entries too damaged to read. The rest is broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse: 8 [units], dog(?) [and/or] tree/wood sign 1(N14) [...] 2 [units], DUR-type bundle(?) [and] ZATU819 [...] 1 [unit], foot/path(?) BU DU A [...] TE, offering-priest/administrator [...] [...] [...] 1(N34) 1(N14) 6 [units] [...] [...] Reverse: 6(N34) [units], NE [and/or] eggs/roe 2 [units], ZATU831 (unidentified commodity) 1 [unit], AGAR2 (a field or flour-type?) 1 [unit], TUN3 (a container or tool?) [...] [...] [...] TE, offering-priest/administrator X [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
8(N01)# , UR~a? GISZ3~b 1(N14) [...] 2(N01) , DUR~b# ZATU819# [...] 1(N01)# , GIR3~c BU~a DU A , TE RAD~a SANGA~a# [...] [...] , [...] 1(N34)# 1(N14)# 6(N01)# [...] , [...] 6(N34) , NE~a NUNUZ~a2 2(N01) , ZATU831@g 1(N01) , AGAR2 1(N01) , TUN3~a [...] , [...] , TE RAD~a SANGA~a X [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2501. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006068) — 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.