Position in chronology
MSVO 1, 104
About this tablet
This is a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk/Jemdet Nasr period (roughly 3200–3000 BCE), one of the very earliest writing systems in human history, found at Jemdet Nasr in southern Iraq. It records disbursements of barley and beer — the staple accounting commodities of the time — to workers and a named temple official (the sanga, or temple administrator), tallied with the era's distinctive numeral-sign system rather than connected sentences. Tablets like this document the bookkeeping that underpinned early temple and institutional economies, long before writing was used for literature or history.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a ration or disbursement record. Some barley, along with a portion described as a 'remainder allocation,' plus beer, was set aside for a group of workers. More barley was handed out, this time under the authority of the temple administrator, with an entry noted as 'deposited' or 'given' — though exactly what that entry records is unclear. A damaged section follows, mentioning more barley but too broken to make out fully. Further lines list additional quantities — some grain-related commodities, fodder or plant material, oil or fat, and a 'head' or chief entry — along with a goat or kid counted alongside barley. Later entries record further barley disbursed under another commodity heading, and the tablet ends with more numeric tallies followed by an official's mark and a badly broken final phrase.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 2(N14): barley — remainder(-allocation) — beer — workers (erim) 2. barley — disbursed (ba) — the temple administrator (sanga) — NI.RU (deposited/given) 3. 1(N14) 3(N01) [...]: [...] barley 4. 2(N14): DA — AD(~c) 5. 3(N14): IL — plant/fodder (u2) 6. 1(N14): remainder(-allocation) — oil/fat — head/chief (sag) 7. goat/kid (mash) — barley 8. 2(N46) 2(N04) 2(N41): LAGAB — barley — disbursed (ba) 9. [1(N45) 2(N14) 5(N01)]: [...] 10. 1(N34) 3(N14) 1(N04) 2(N41): GIR3 — PA(-mark) [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
2(N14) , SZE~a TAK4~a KASZ~a ERIM~a , SZE~a BA SANGA~a |NI~a.RU| 1(N14) 3(N01)# [...] , X [...] SZE~a 2(N14) , DA~a AD~c 3(N14) , IL U2~b 1(N14) , TAK4~a NI~a SAG , MASZ SZE~a 2(N46) 2(N04) 2(N41) , LAGAB~b SZE~a BA [1(N45) 2(N14) 5(N01)] , [...] 1(N34) 3(N14) 1(N04) 2(N41)# , GIR3@g~b PA~a [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 1, 104. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P005171) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.