Position in chronology
MSVO 1, 109
About this tablet
This is a small administrative tablet from the Uruk/Jemdet Nasr period (roughly 3100–2900 BCE), one of the very earliest forms of writing, found at the site of Jemdet Nasr in southern Iraq. It is a tally of goods — jars, fruit (apples), sheep, and fish — each entry paired with a numeral sign, the kind of running inventory a temple or storehouse official would have kept to track incoming or outgoing supplies. The final line seems to record that some quantity was 'given' or 'deposited' and 'consumed,' closing out the account, though the tablet is too broken to say who was involved or for what occasion.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a storeroom tally sheet. It lists a series of items received or issued, each with a number attached: four of one thing (too broken to name), then smaller amounts of two more unnamed goods, one of jar-type 'b,' one of jar-type 'c,' one unit handed over or received, an item too damaged to identify, three units of a commodity marked 'ME,' four units of something stored in a jar or boat-shaped container, seven apples, six sheep, three carp, and two more units of an unspecified good. The tablet then notes that some amount of oil or fat (or a similar commodity) was 'given' or 'deposited,' described as 'fresh,' with three more units 'consumed' or issued out — the object of that transaction is lost. The very last line seems to have recorded a year or a name, but almost nothing of it survives.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine4(N20) [...] , [1(N03) 2(N40)] , 1(N01) , DUG~b (jar-type b) 1(N01) , DUG~c (jar-type c) 1(N14) , ŠU2 (into the hand of / receipt) [...] , ZATU644~a (commodity sign) 3(N01) , ME~a ZATU753 4(N01) [...] , MA (vessel/boat) 7(N01) , ḪAŠḪUR (apple/fruit) 2(N14) 4(N01) , UDU~a (sheep) 3(N14) , SUḪUR (carp-fish) 2(N52) , , |NI~a.RU| GIBIL SU~a 3(N57) GU7 [...] (oil-given(?), fresh, SU(-commodity), 3(N57), consumed/disbursed [...]) [...] , [MU |ZATU714xHI@g~a|] (year/name(?)-sign compound)
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
4(N20)# [...] , [1(N03) 2(N40)] , 1(N01)# , DUG~b 1(N01) , DUG~c 1(N14) , SZU2# [...] , ZATU644~a 3(N01)# , ME~a ZATU753 4(N01)# [...] , MA# 7(N01) , HASZHUR# 2(N14)# 4(N01) , UDU~a 3(N14) , SUHUR# 2(N52) , , |NI~a.RU| GIBIL SU~a 3(N57)# GU7# [...] [...] , [MU |ZATU714xHI@g~a|]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 1, 109. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P005176) — 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.