Position in chronology
MSVO 1, 179
About this tablet
This is a small clay tablet from the Uruk/Jemdet Nasr period (roughly 3100–2900 BCE), one of the earliest forms of writing, used to track goods in an institutional household or temple economy at or near Jemdet Nasr in southern Iraq. The surviving entries list containers, beer, fruit (apples), fish, and quantities tied to titled officials or institutional categories, with closing lines that seem to record consumption or disbursement of rations. It is not a literary or royal text but the humble bookkeeping of early bureaucrats — proof that even 5,000 years ago, scribes were counting jars of beer and baskets of fish.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This broken accounting tablet records a short list of goods: one jar, one measure of beer, six of something called MA (perhaps boats or a container-type), and six apples. Further down, quantities of cattle-stall or institutional goods are paired with a fish product (carp), and an official or lord (EN) appears alongside a jar and what may be an overseer's mark. Later entries mention a portion or ration category (BAR) tied to more jars, and the last two lines note that rations were 'consumed' or issued — one batch apparently described as 'fresh' or 'new' — but the tablet breaks off before the final details can be read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 (unit): jar (DUG~b). 1 (unit): beer (KASZ~c). 6 (units): MA (boat/container-measure). 6 (units): apple(s) (ḪAŠḪUR). 4(N14) 4 (units): ... AB~a. 3(N14) (units): AB~a (cattle-stall/institutional) — SUḪUR (carp/fish). [...]: EN~a (lord/official) — PA~a (overseer/classifying mark) — jar (DUG~a). 2(N52) (units): AB~a. 3(N21) (units): EN~a — jar (DUG~a) — BAR (disbursement/portion). — consumed/ration disbursed (GU7) — GA~a — [...]. — fresh/new (GIBIL) — 3(N57) — SU~a — consumed/ration disbursed (GU7) — GA~a — [...].
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
1(N01) , DUG~b# 1(N01) , KASZ~c# 6(N01)# , MA# 6(N01)# , HASZHUR# 4(N14)# 4(N01)# , X AB~a 3(N14)# , AB~a# SUHUR# [...] , EN~a# PA~a# DUG~a# 2(N52)# , AB~a 3(N21) , EN~a DUG~a BAR , GU7 GA~a X , GIBIL# 3(N57) SU~a GU7# GA~a# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 1, 179. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P005246) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.