Position in chronology
MS 3004
About this tablet
One of the oldest known types of written documents in human history: a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), likely originating from the city of Umma in southern Iraq. It records quantities of barley — probably different grades or processing stages of grain — using the impressed round-mark numeral system that preceded the wedge-shaped cuneiform most people recognize. The final line appears to be a totaling entry summarizing the preceding entries. Such tablets are essentially the world's earliest accounting records, invented not for literature or religion but for the practical management of temple grain stores.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Entry 1: 3 units of barley — [quality/type: MUD, NUN]. Entry 2: 2 large units and 1 medium unit — [category unclear] fresh/new grain. Entry 3: 1 unit — [category unclear], PAP type. Entry 4: 1 unit — [category unclear], DAR type. Total: 5 units, 2 large units, 1 medium unit — [dated to a day?] barley, fresh, PAP, IB category. The rest is too damaged or too archaic to read with certainty.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3 [units] — barley, MUD, NUN 2[large units] 1[medium unit] — X, new/fresh 1 [unit] — X, PAP 1 [unit] — X, DAR Total: 5 [units] 2[large units] 1[medium unit] — [day/sun], barley, new/fresh, PAP, IB
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
3(N01)# , SZE~a# MUD# NUN~a# 2(N39~a)# 1(N24)#? , X GIBIL# 1(N01)# , X PAP~a#? 1(N01) , X DAR~b# 5(N01) 2(N39~a) 1(N24) , U4 SZE~a GIBIL PAP~a# IB~a#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 3004. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006258) — 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.