Position in chronology
MSVO 1, 007
About this tablet
This is a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk/Jemdet Nasr period (roughly 3100–2900 BCE), one of humanity's earliest written documents — predating even Sumerian cuneiform proper. It is a numerical account, most likely a barley ledger, listing successive quantities under different numeral systems alongside commodity and personnel markers (a possible supervisory title, a place designation, and a high-status official at the end). Tablets like this come from the earliest stratum of bureaucratic writing, when scribes at cities such as Jemdet Nasr were developing sign-and-number notation to track grain, land, and the officials responsible for it.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is an old grain account. Each line pairs a set of counted quantities with a commodity or category: barley appears repeatedly, sometimes described as a reddish or processed type, alongside marks that may indicate a supervising official, a place of origin, and a person who received or was in charge of the goods. Partway through, a 'field' is mentioned together with more barley, and the tablet closes with a substantial barley total attributed to a lord or senior official. Several entries are broken and cannot be read, so the exact totals and the identities of the people and places named are only partly recoverable.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 3(N14) 4(N01) 1(N39~a) — [broken sign] barley (ŠE~a) [...] 2. 3(N19) 4(N04) — reddish/processed commodity (SI4~f), BU~a, PAP~a, NAM2 [(damaged)] 3. 6(N19) [...] — [broken sign], place/locative (KI), [broken sign] [...] 4. 4(N19) 1(N04) 3(N41) — "in hand of"/received (ŠU?) [...] 5. — lord/official (EN~a), reed-measure (GI), [broken sign] [...] 6. 8(N14) 1(N01) 4(N39~a) — field/GAN2, barley (ŠE~a) 7. [2(N46) 7(N19) 5(N04) 4(N41) 1(N24~b)?] — barley (ŠE~a), reddish/processed (SI4~f) 8. 1(N36) 6(N14) 1(N01) 3(N39~a) 1(N24) — barley (ŠE~a), lord/official (EN~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) 4(N01) 1(N39~a) , X SZE~a [...] 3(N19)# 4(N04)# , SI4~f BU~a PAP~a NAM2# 6(N19)# [...] , X KI X [...] 4(N19) 1(N04)# 3(N41) , SZU#? [...] , EN~a GI X [...] 8(N14) 1(N01) 4(N39~a)# , GAN2# SZE~a [2(N46) 7(N19) 5(N04) 4(N41) 1(N24~b)?] , SZE~a SI4~f 1(N36)# 6(N14)# 1(N01) 3(N39~a) 1(N24) , SZE~a EN~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 1, 007. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P005074) — 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.