Position in chronology
MSVO 1, 186
About this tablet
This is a small clay administrative tablet from the Uruk/Jemdet Nasr period (roughly 3200–2900 BCE), one of the very earliest phases of writing in Mesopotamia, when scribes used pictographic proto-cuneiform signs and impressed numeral notations to track goods and personnel. The surviving lines mix numeric quantities with titles or commodity categories — a 'lord' or overseer figure, an unresolved sign (ZATU776), and terms that may relate to a cattle-stall, storage facility, or ration deliveries. The tablet is badly broken, so the exact transaction — who received what, and why — cannot be reconstructed with confidence; it stands as a fragment of the accounting apparatus of one of the world's first cities.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This broken record lists quantities of goods alongside a few institutional terms. One entry notes something delivered to a cattle-stall or storeroom. Another gives a count — ten of one unit — tied to a title that might mean 'overseer' or 'lord,' plus a couple of unidentified symbols and small numeric tallies. A further line mentions 'day' and something that was apparently 'given' or 'deposited,' though the exact commodity is lost. The tablet breaks off repeatedly, and the final surviving line records another quantity — four of one unit and seven of another — next to a sign that may denote a container or bundle. Too much is missing to say what was actually being counted or for whom.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , ... was brought/delivered (DU) to the cattle-stall/institution (AB) [...] 1(N14) 10(N01) (units) , the lord/overseer (EN) — the PA-official/marker — the ZATU776 sign — 1(N58)? — the AN sign — 3(N57) [...] , the day/temporal marker (U4) — NI.RU (given/deposited) [...] [...] , [...] 1(N14) 1(N01) (units) [...] , [...] 1(N14) [...] , [...] 4(N14) 7(N01) (units) , the LAGAB sign (container/aggregate)? — the DUR sign (cord/bundle) — X [...]
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
[...] , X DU AB~a# [...] 1(N14) 10(N01) , EN~a# PA~a# ZATU776 1(N58)? AN 3(N57) [...] , U4 |NI~a.RU|# [...] [...] , [...] 1(N14) 1(N01) [...] , [...] 1(N14)# [...] , [...] 4(N14)# 7(N01) , LAGAB~b#? DUR~b X [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 1, 186. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P005253) — 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.