Position in chronology
MS 2681
About this tablet
This is a small, badly broken clay tablet from the very earliest phase of writing, the Uruk period (roughly the later 4th millennium BCE), likely from the Umma region of southern Iraq. It is an administrative tally of livestock — ewes, goats, and oxen — counted in numeral notches and circular impressions rather than words, the kind of bookkeeping a temple or estate official kept to track flocks and herds. Only fragments of the original entries survive; most of the tablet's content, including whatever totaled or explained these animals, is now lost to breakage.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This looks like an old inventory slip listing livestock: it opens with a count of 2 ewes, though the surface is worn there. The next line has a numeral notation followed by a sign that's too broken to make out. Later it records 5 goats, then 1 ox — again on damaged clay. Several lines after that are completely missing or too fragmentary to read. Near the end, another entry lists 1 ox with an additional qualifying sign, followed by more lines that are blank or broken beyond recovery. In short: a livestock count, ewes, goats, and oxen, most of which is now lost to damage and breaks in the tablet.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 2(N01), U8 (ewe[s]) —damaged surface— 2. 2(N14) 8(N01), X [...] —broken— 3. [...] 5(N01), MASZ2 (goat[s]) 4. 1(N01), GU4 (ox) —damaged surface— 5. , [...] —broken— 6. [...] , [...] —broken— 7. 1(N01), GU4 (ox) NE~a —damaged surface— 8. , —broken/blank— 9. [...] , [...] X —broken—
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) , U8# 2(N14) 8(N01) , X [...] [...] 5(N01) , MASZ2 1(N01) , GU4# , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N01) , GU4# NE~a , , [...] X
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2681. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006102) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.