Position in chronology
MS 3158
About this tablet
This is a small archaic administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly the late fourth millennium BCE), one of the earliest kinds of writing in the world. It is a numerical-ideographic tally: a list of paired entries, each giving a quantity followed by a single sign or short sign-compound standing for a commodity, animal, or institutional category — young animals, an 'ear' sign, containers, a field, wool, and a disbursement marker. There is no grammar of the later kind, no verbs or sentences — just counted items being tracked, almost certainly by a temple or palace administrator managing goods or livestock.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is a simple tally sheet. Someone recorded a series of quantities against short labels: 4 young animals, 2 of something called 'the ear,' 2 of a 'great roof' item, 1 of a compound sign combining 'lord' and 'prince,' 2 boats or containers, 3 units of field-land, 2 of another compound sign, 1 unit of a sign called TUKU, 11 units of a storehouse-related sign, 24 units marked as 'disbursed,' and finally 52 units of wool that were also disbursed. No sentences connect these — it reads like a running inventory or account, item by item, the everyday bookkeeping of a household or institution keeping track of its goods.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse: 4(N01), AMAR — "4 units: calf/young-animal (sign AMAR)" 2(N01), GEŠTU — "2 units: sign GEŠTU (‘ear’)" 2(N01), GAL UR3 — "2 units: sign GAL-UR3 (‘great roof/threshing-floor’ compound)" 1(N01), |EN×NUN| — "1 unit: compound sign EN×NUN" 2(N01), MAR — "2 units: sign MAR (boat/vessel?)" 3(N01), GAN2 — "3 units: sign GAN2 (‘field’)" 2(N01), |ŠU2×EN| — "2 units: compound sign ŠU2×EN" 1(N01), TUKU — "1 unit: sign TUKU" 1(N14) 1(N01), |GA2×X| — "11 units: compound sign GA2×(illegible element)" 2(N14) 4(N01), BA — "24 units: sign BA (disbursement marker)" 5(N14) 2(N01), KISZ SIG2 BA — "52 units: sign KISZ, wool (SIG2), disbursed (BA)"
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
4(N01) , AMAR 2(N01) , GESZTU~b 2(N01) , GAL UR3~b1 1(N01) , |EN~axNUN~a| 2(N01) , MAR~a 3(N01) , GAN2 2(N01) , |SZU2xEN~a| 1(N01) , TUKU 1(N14) 1(N01) , |GA2~bxX| 2(N14) 4(N01) , BA? 5(N14) 2(N01) , KISZ SIG2~d2 BA
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC) ?) — MS 3158. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P252169) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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.