Position in chronology
MS 4513
About this tablet
This is a small clay 'pillow-shaped' tablet from the Uruk period (roughly the late 4th millennium BCE), one of the very earliest forms of writing in Mesopotamia — a script of pictographic and numerical signs called proto-cuneiform, not yet capable of recording spoken language directly. It appears to be an administrative tally: rows of numeral notations paired with title-signs such as 'sanga' (a temple/storehouse official) and 'en' (a lord or high-ranking official), likely tracking quantities of a commodity — possibly grain, given the ŠE sign — allocated to or received by named offices. Found reportedly near Umma, it belongs to the archive-keeping tradition that gave rise to the first cities' bureaucracies, and much of its precise administrative meaning remains genuinely unresolved by scholars.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This looks like an early bookkeeping tablet: a series of tallies, each pairing a number with an official title or category. One entry credits a quantity to a 'sanga' (temple administrator) under a heading called KISZ; another records an amount for an 'en' (a lord or high official) under a place or category marked KI. Further lines list amounts against signs whose exact meaning is unclear today — possibly measures, storehouse names, or grades of grain — and one line notes something delivered 'into the hand of' an en-official. The reverse side carries a further run of plain numeral tallies, ending again with the KISZ and KI markers seen on the front. Altogether it reads like a short accounting note distributing or recording quantities of goods among a handful of officials and categories, though several of the terms cannot be translated with certainty.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse: 1. 1(N14) 1(N01), sanga(-official) — KISZ 2. 1(N14) 3(N01), en(-official) — KI 3. 6(N01), GEŠTU (sign) 4. 6(N01), NUN+EN (compound sign) 5. 8(N01), KAB 6. 1(N14) 2(N01), GAL ("great/large") 7. 3(N01), ŠE.NAM2 (grain-designation) — KAB 8. 3(N01), AN — ŠU2 ("into the hand of"/receipt formula) — en(-official) Reverse: 9. 2(N02) 10. 5(N14) 1(N01) 11. 1(N14) 5(N01) 12. 1(N34) 6(N01), KISZ — KI
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(N14) 1(N01) , SANGA~a KISZ 1(N14) 3(N01) , EN~a KI 6(N01) , GESZTU~b 6(N01) , |NUN~a+EN~a| 8(N01) , KAB 1(N14) 2(N01) , GAL~a 3(N01) , |SZE~a.NAM2| KAB 3(N01) , AN SZU2 EN~a 2(N02) , 5(N14) 1(N01) , 1(N14) 5(N01) , 1(N34) 6(N01) , KISZ KI
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC) ?) — MS 4513. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006313) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.