Position in chronology
MS 3150
About this tablet
This is a small proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period, among the very earliest writing in human history (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), recording a tally of goods or persons — likely rations or a labor account — under headings that may denote a category of women (SAL), a group classification (KISZ), and several notations built on the compound U4 sign whose exact accounting meaning is still debated. The final legible line hints at a bread allocation before the text breaks off entirely. It belongs to the earliest layer of bookkeeping texts from Mesopotamian cities, where scribes were inventing a notation system for counting people, animals, and commodities before writing could yet record full sentences.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This looks like a tally sheet: line by line it lists a quantity followed by a term or category — seven units disbursed under a 'woman' or personnel heading grouped as 'KISZ'; six units under another uncertain heading; then a run of entries (2, 2, 6, 5 units) each marked with a special compound day/sun sign whose accounting sense we don't fully understand; two units of bread; a line so damaged only two unidentified signs survive; and a final entry of two units tied to another U4-sign and a mark that might be a supervisor's or summary notation. The tablet breaks off after that, so whatever total or closing statement followed is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 7(N01), BA (disbursed) — SAL (female/woman[-category]) — KISZ (category/group) 2. 6(N01), SZA3~a2 (uncertain sign/term) 3. 2(N01), |U4x4(N57)| (compound U4-sign, quantifier 4) 4. 2(N01), |U4x3(N57)| (compound U4-sign, quantifier 3) 5. 6(N01), |U4x2(N57)| (compound U4-sign, quantifier 2) 6. 5(N01), |U4x1(N57)| (compound U4-sign, quantifier 1) 7. 2(N01), NINDA2#? (bread [uncertain]) 8. [illegible], X X (two unidentified/damaged signs) 9. 2(N01), |U4x1(N57)| PAP~a#? (compound U4-sign, quantifier 1; PAP~a, uncertain — supervisory/summary marker?) 10. [...] (break — remainder lost)
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
7(N01) , BA SAL KISZ 6(N01) , SZA3~a2 2(N01) , |U4x4(N57)| 2(N01) , |U4x3(N57)| 6(N01) , |U4x2(N57)| 5(N01) , |U4x1(N57)| 2(N01) , NINDA2#? , X X 2(N01) , |U4x1(N57)| PAP~a#? , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC) ?) — MS 3150. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P252161) — 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.