Position in chronology
MSVO 3, 15
About this tablet
This is a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from Uruk, among the very earliest writing on earth, dating to roughly 3200–3000 BCE. It records a series of numbered entries — quantities of fish, small birds, and other goods — under headings that likely name officials, categories, or institutions, culminating in lines marked 'consumed' and a final summary tally. At this stage writing was not yet fully phonetic language; texts like this are lists of commodities and counts kept by early temple or palace administrators, and much of the vocabulary still resists confident translation.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is an early accounting record. It lists several batches of goods — one large unit under an entry involving a person or office called EN, then smaller lots of fish, small birds, and other items (some marked with additional signs whose meaning isn't settled) — each counted out in the archaic numeral system. Partway through, the scribe notes that some quantity was 'consumed,' repeats that notation with another count, and closes with a line reading roughly 'total in hand' or 'persons accounted for.' It reads like a ledger of rations or supplies issued and used up, but because the script is at such an early stage, we can reconstruct the quantities and general shape of the account far more confidently than the specific words.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(N18) unit — EN(-a) AN RU 5(N03) units — fish(-a) [3(N57)] MUD TE 4(N03) units — small bird(s), fish(-a), BU(-a) 3(N03) units — SIG, house(-a), DU, DA(-a) 3(N03) units — NIR(-a), MUD, 3(N57), TE — consumed (GU7) 3(N18) 3(N03) — consumed (GU7) — SAGSZU (total/persons in hand)
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
1(N18) , EN~a AN RU 5(N03) , KU6~a# [3(N57)] MUD TE 4(N03) , MUSZEN TUR KU6~a BU~a 3(N03) , SIG E2~a DU DA~a# 3(N03) , NIR~a MUD 3(N57) TE , GU7# 3(N18) 3(N03) , GU7 , SAGSZU
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 3, 15. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Land Berlin, Berlin, Germany (P005326) — 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.