Position in chronology
MS 3885
About this tablet
This is a small clay accounting tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3100–3000 BCE), among the very earliest writing in the world, from the ancient city of Umma in southern Iraq. It is a stock list: an anonymous administrator recorded quantities of jars or their contents under seven different headings — some naming commodities, some naming institutions like a 'household' or a 'cattle-pen', and one naming an official title (LAGAR) — and then totaled them on the back. Remarkably, the seven line entries (30+22+3+2+8+6+5) add up exactly to the total given on the reverse, 76, which lets us confirm the numeral readings even though the meaning of several signs remains genuinely uncertain. It's a glimpse of the bookkeeping that ran a Sumerian temple or estate 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 tablet is a tally sheet. It lists, in order: 30 jars of one commodity or type (RAD~a); 22 units of something called KITI; 3 units of a good identified by two signs whose exact meaning is unclear; 2 units connected to a household under an overseer; another 8 units of the RAD~a type (in a variant form); 6 units associated with a cattle-pen; and 5 units under the authority of an official called LAGAR. A ruled line separates this list from a closing entry on the back of the tablet, where the scribe wrote a grand total: 76 jars in all, marked with what appears to be a summary notation. The individual entries add up correctly to that total, confirming the count even though we can't be fully certain what several of the category names actually designated.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Obverse — four registers, each divided into two entries) 1. 3(N14) [=30]: DUG-vessels (of) RAD~a 2. 2(N14) 2(N01) [=22]: KITI 3. 3(N01): ZATU795 (of) LAM~b(?) 4. 2(N01): E2~b (household/institution) — PA~a (overseer/category) 5. 8(N01): RAD~a (variant @g) 6. 6(N01): AB~b (cattle-pen) — NUNUZ~a1 7. 5(N01): LAGAR~a (functionary/title) (ruled dividing line) (Reverse) 8. Total: 1(N34) 1(N14) 6(N01) [=76]: DUG-vessels — PAP~a (total/summary marker) — SU~a — RAD~a
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
3(N14) , DUG~a RAD~a 2(N14) 2(N01) , KITI 3(N01) , ZATU795 LAM~b? 2(N01) , E2~b PA~a 8(N01) , RAD~a@g 6(N01) , AB~b NUNUZ~a1 5(N01) , LAGAR~a , 1(N34) 1(N14) 6(N01) , DUG~a PAP~a SU~a RAD~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 3885. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006277) — 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.