Position in chronology
MS 4568
About this tablet
One of the oldest written documents in human history, this small clay tablet dates to the Uruk period (roughly 3200–3000 BCE), when writing was first being invented in southern Mesopotamia. It is an administrative record — probably tracking quantities of barley and fish, perhaps linked to a courtyard or storage area of a large institution. The numerical signs represent a sophisticated counting system already in use before writing was even a generation old. Despite its damaged state, it gives a glimpse into the very earliest bureaucratic record-keeping known to humanity.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A partially damaged entry records quantities of barley and fish — possibly stored in or accounted through a courtyard facility. The surviving figures show several units of measure: 3 large measures plus 2 standard units and 2 larger impressed units, associated with barley, a sign read 'DA,' and fish linked to a courtyard location. The opening lines are too broken to read fully, but they also seem to reference similar commodities. The rest of the text is lost or illegible.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] 2 (N01), [...] KI MUD [BU] [...] X, [clay/wind/tablet?] [...] barley [...], [...] X fish, courtyard [...], 3 (N14) 2 (N01) 2 (N39~a), barley — DA — fish — courtyard[?]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] 2(N01)# , [...] KI MUD# BU~a# [...] X , IM~a [...] SZE~a [...] , [...] X UR5~a , [...] X KU6~a# KISAL~b1 , 3(N14) 2(N01) 2(N39~a) , SZE~a# DA~a# KU6~a# KISAL~b1#?
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 4568. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006337) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-18/v5-modern-rendering).
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.