Position in chronology
MS 4570
About this tablet
This is a small proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period, found at or near ancient Umma in southern Iraq — among the very earliest writing on earth, dating to roughly 3200–3000 BCE. It appears to be a tally of livestock (goats, kids, nanny-goats kept in a pen) along with associated goods or products, recorded with the archaic numeral and sign system that predates true syntax — essentially a bookkeeper's memory aid rather than a sentence. Because the script is pictographic and many signs' precise meanings remain debated among specialists, much of the content is best understood as 'probably livestock and commodity accounting' rather than a fully readable message.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This looks like a stock-list or ration tally kept by an early Uruk-period accountant, probably at Umma. It records small numbers of animals — kid-goats and nanny-goats kept in an enclosure — alongside what seem to be officials' titles or commodity categories, and closes with a line noting some kind of disbursement, possibly of oil or fat along with hides. The tablet is damaged and several signs are unclear, so parts of the record — especially the first two lines — are simply illegible today.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 2 (units) — [......] ... kid-goat(s) (MASZ2), [compound sign] U4×3(N57) 2. [......] — ... UMUN2 (a lordly title/function) 3. 1 (unit) — nanny-goat(s) (UD5) in the livestock pen (TUR3), ME (category/quality marker) 4. 1 (unit)# — [compound sign] U4×3(N57), PIRIG (lion / lion-product?) 5. 1 (N14-unit) — SU, SA, disbursed (BA)#, NI (oil/fat?)#
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
2(N01) , [...] X MASZ2# |U4x3(N57)| [...] , X UMUN2 1(N01) , UD5~a TUR3~a ME~a 1(N01)# , |U4x3(N57)| PIRIG~b1? 1(N14) , SU~a SA~c BA# NI~a#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 4570. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006339) — 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.