Position in chronology
MS 4495
About this tablet
This is a small proto-cuneiform accounting tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), among the very earliest writing anywhere on earth, probably from the area of Umma in southern Iraq. It records quantities of barley and a related 'mixed' grain commodity (HI) using the archaic numeral-and-commodity-sign system that predates any grammatical writing — pure bookkeeping, not narrative text. The repeated entries on front and back likely record the same or paired transactions, ending with a notation that the grain was disbursed or allotted.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is a grain ledger. One entry lists a quantity of barley using several different-sized number marks, and a second entry lists a smaller quantity of a related grain commodity called 'HI' — possibly a mixed or processed grain. The same two entries appear to be repeated on the other side of the tablet, though that side is more worn and some of the numbers there are hard to make out. A final line, also with damaged numerals, records more of the HI-grain and barley together with a mark that seems to indicate the grain was handed out or allotted to someone. Because this is proto-cuneiform — writing from before full sentences existed — there are no named people, places, or verbs beyond this administrative shorthand.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineLine 1: 1(N46) 3(N20) 3(N05) 3(N42~a) 1(N25) — barley (ŠE~a) Line 2: 8(N20) 1(N05) 3(N42~a) — HI-grain (mixed/qualified grain), [sign X, broken] Line 3 [damaged, matching Line 1]: 1(N46) 3(N20) 3(N05) 3(N42~a) 1(N25) — barley (ŠE~a) Line 4 [matching Line 2]: 8(N20) 1(N05) 3(N42~a) — HI-grain Line 5 [damaged numerals]: 2(N46) 1(N20)(?) 5(N05)(?) 1(N42~a)(?) 1(N25) — HI-grain, barley: 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
1(N46) 3(N20) 3(N05) 3(N42~a) 1(N25) , SZE~a 8(N20) 1(N05) 3(N42~a) , HI@g~a X 1(N46)# 3(N20)# 3(N05)# 3(N42~a)# 1(N25)# , SZE~a# 8(N20) 1(N05) 3(N42~a) , HI@g~a 2(N46) 1(N20)#? 5(N05)#? 1(N42~a)#? 1(N25)# , HI@g~a# SZE~a BA
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 4495. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006298) — 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.