MS 3150

~3100 BCE·Uruk Period·P252161

About this tablet

This is one of the earliest written documents in human history — a small clay tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), bearing proto-cuneiform signs that have not yet been fully deciphered. It appears to be an administrative record, likely tracking allocations or rations of goods — possibly food commodities — associated with female workers or a category designated by the sign SAL ('woman/female'). The sign KIŠ may introduce a summary total, and the repeated U4-based signs likely encode quantities in an archaic metrological system. What makes it remarkable is its age: writing was invented precisely to keep records like this one, and tablets such as MS 3150 are the direct ancestors of all subsequent literature and record-keeping in the ancient world.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

The tablet records a series of numbered allocations. Seven units are listed under the heading 'BA SAL KIŠ' — apparently a disbursement involving female workers, possibly a ration distribution at Kiš or a summary total. Six units go to an 'interior' or 'heart' category. Then come several entries measured in the archaic U4-based notation: two units each of the four- and three-count varieties, six of the two-count, and five of the one-count. Two units of a bread or grain commodity follow, then two more units of the one-count measure linked to a supervisor or elder designation. The final lines are too damaged or broken to read.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Low confidence

7 [units], BA SAL KIŠ 6 [units], interior/heart 2 [units], |U4×4(N57)| 2 [units], |U4×3(N57)| 6 [units], |U4×2(N57)| 5 [units], |U4×1(N57)| 2 [units], NINDA2[?] [...] X X 2 [units], |U4×1(N57)| PAP~a[?] [...]

Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

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-4-6 (2026-05-18/v5-modern-rendering).

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