Position in chronology
MSVO 1, 058
About this tablet
This is a small proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from Jemdet Nasr (or a related southern Mesopotamian center) in the Uruk period, one of the very earliest phases of writing anywhere in the world, roughly 3100–2900 BCE. It records a short list of paired entries — a quantity followed by a commodity, personnel category, or institutional sign — likely tracking goods or workers such as fish, pottery-makers, and grain, closing with a summary total. Because writing was still pictographic and highly abbreviated at this stage, many of the signs functioned as flexible administrative shorthand whose precise meaning (title, commodity, or category) is still debated by specialists.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a fragmentary accounting tablet listing several short entries, each giving a quantity followed by a category or commodity mark — one entry involving fish, another apparently 'delivered' to or associated with a place or installation called BARA3, three units linked to potters, and one entry pairing two obscure category signs. The tablet ends with a summary line totaling 3 large units and 5 small units against four combined category-signs, probably a recap of what's listed above. The very first and one middle line are too damaged to read, and much of the meaning depends on institutional shorthand from the earliest days of writing that remains only partly understood today.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [...] : [...] 2. 1 (unit): KU6~a — the compound sign |KU6~a.1(N02)| ("fish" sign combined with a secondary numeral notation) 3. 1 (unit): NAM2(?) 4. 1 (unit): DU BARA3 — "brought/delivered — BARA3" (dais/platform) 5. 3 (units): BAHAR2~c — "potter(s)" 6. 1 (unit): BIR3~b MUSZ3~a 7. [...] : [...] 8. 3(N14) 5(N01): UB AB~a BAR SAG SI4~f — summary/total line
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.
Engine notes
read from photo7 uncertain terms ↓
- NAM2? — Queried in the transliteration; in proto-cuneiform contexts the sign's function is unclear — possibly a title element, determinative, or professional category marker. The '?' reflects the original editor's uncertainty.
- DU BARA3 — DU can mean 'to go/walk' or function as a determinative; BARA3 may denote a throne-dais, a raised platform, or a title (as in 'ruler/lord' in later Sumerian). The compound's meaning in this administrative context is unresolved.
- BAHAR2~c — A sign variant (subtype c) associated with potters or pottery vessels in Uruk-period accounts; the specific commodity or profession intended here is uncertain.
- BIR3~b MUSZ3~a# — Both signs are damaged (# indicates partial preservation). MUSZ3 is associated with snakes or certain textile/craft items in proto-cuneiform; BIR3 is poorly understood. The compound's referent is unknown.
- UB AB~a BAR SAG SI4~f? — This compound sequence is difficult. UB may denote a corner or cavity; AB~a is polyphonous (sea, father, professional title); BAR can mean 'outside/other side' or 'to split'; SAG means 'head/chief'; SI4 is queried (subtype f). The whole may be a title compound, a place name, or a category label. The '?' on SI4~f reflects editorial uncertainty about sign variant.
- |KU6~a.1(N02)| — KU6 is the standard sign for 'fish'; the dot-notation indicates a compound with a small impressed numeral N02 (the small round impression = 2 or a fractional unit depending on counting system). The exact quantity or sub-classification is uncertain.
- 3(N14) 5(N01) — In the standard Uruk sexagesimal system, N14 = 10× N01, so 3(N14) + 5(N01) = 35. However, the counting system can vary by commodity, so '35' is the conventional interpretation rather than a certainty.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows two views of the object: the upper section displays the reverse or edge of the tablet — heavily eroded, largely unreadable from the image, with faint wedge-like impressions visible on the right-hand edge strip (consistent with the sign clusters noted in the transliteration). The lower section is the obverse (or a fragment thereof) and is considerably more legible: clearly visible are several round impressed numerals (N01-type circles) grouped in clusters on the left, at least two large star-like signs (consistent with proto-cuneiform signs such as AN or a multi-pointed star form) in the center, and a column of more complex incised signs on the right margin, which align broadly with the multi-sign entries (UB, AB, BAR, SAG, SI4) in the final line of the transliteration. A horizontal-striped sign at the lower center is visible, possibly BAHAR2 or a related sign. The museum accession number '1921 / 46' (or 1927-0046) is visible on the edge piece. The photo resolution is insufficient to confirm individual wedge details of the right-column signs, and the upper fragment is too eroded for sign-by-sign verification. The general layout — numerals on the left, commodity/title signs on the right in columnar format — matches the transliteration structure well. The large numeral in the final entry (3 N14 + 5 N01 = 35 in the standard sexagesimal system) cannot be directly confirmed from the photo. No transliteration-to-photo contradictions are outright, but many signs cannot be verified at this resolution.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 4.6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 14, 2026 · 2105 in / 1293 out tokens
Transliteration
[...] , [...] 1(N01) , |KU6~a.1(N02)| 1(N01) , NAM2? 1(N01) , DU BARA3 3(N01) , BAHAR2~c 1(N01) , BIR3~b MUSZ3~a# [...] , [...] 3(N14) 5(N01) , UB AB~a BAR SAG SI4~f?
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 1, 058. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P005125) — 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.