Position in chronology
MSVO 3, 22
About this tablet
This is a fragmentary proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from Uruk, among the very earliest writing in the world, dating to roughly 3100–3000 BCE. It is a numerical account — likely tracking rations or allotments of grain or goods to people or personnel categories, using the archaic system of impressed circle-and-wedge numerals alongside a handful of incised word-signs (a 'lady', an overseer mark, a cattle-pen, 'consumed', 'disbursed'). Because so much of the tablet is broken and the script is still pictographic rather than fully phonetic, many of the individual signs cannot be pinned to one certain meaning — but the overall shape of the text, rows of numbers followed by qualifying signs, is unmistakably bureaucratic bookkeeping from one of history'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 a series of numbered entries — quantities of some commodity, probably grain — each followed by a short notation identifying who or what it concerns: a woman or female worker, an entry linked to a 'lady' and a cattle-pen, an entry involving a prince or storehouse and a person called 'head' or chief, an overseer's mark next to a fortified or enclosed place, entries tied to signs read 'TE' and 'AZ,' and finally a line invoking 'the land' together with an overseer notation. Two lines end with the word for 'consumed' — rations issued and used up — and the tablet closes with an entry marked 'disbursed,' the amount given out. The rest of the tablet, including whatever followed, is broken away and lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Column/fragment, obverse) 1. [...] 1(N01), [...] SAL (woman/female) X 2. [...] 1(N01) 2(N39~a) 1(N24), NIN (lady/mistress) TUR3 (cattle-pen) 3. [...] 3(N14) 2(N39~a), NUN (prince/storehouse[?]) 6(N57) SAG (head/chief) 4. [...] 2(N14) 2(N01), PA (overseer/mark) |1(N58).BAD| (fortress/‘open’ sign) 5. [...] 1(N24), TE NUN [...] 6. [...] 1(N24), [...] 7. [...] 1(N01) 1(N39~a) 1(N24), AZ 8. 1(N01) 1(N39~a) 1(N24), KALAM (the land) PAP (overseer/total) PA 9. , GU7 (consumed/rationed) 10. [...] 2(N45) 5(N14) 1(N01) 1(N24), GU7 (consumed/rationed) 11. 8(N14) 2(N01) 4(N39~a) 1(N24), BA (disbursed) [...] 12. [...], [...] (broken)
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)# , [...] SAL# X [...] 1(N01) 2(N39~a) 1(N24) , NIN TUR3~a [...] 3(N14) 2(N39~a) , NUN~a 6(N57) SAG [...] 2(N14) 2(N01) , PA~a |1(N58).BAD~a| [...] 1(N24)# , TE NUN~a# [...] [...] 1(N24)# , [...] [...] 1(N01) 1(N39~a) 1(N24) , AZ 1(N01) 1(N39~a) 1(N24) , KALAM~b PAP~a PA~a , GU7# [...] 2(N45) 5(N14) 1(N01) 1(N24) , GU7 8(N14) 2(N01) 4(N39~a) 1(N24) , BA [...] [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 3, 22. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Land Berlin, Berlin, Germany (P005333) — 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.