Position in chronology
CDLI Lexical 000023, ex. 098
About this tablet
A proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), possibly from Umma in southern Iraq, now preserved in multiple broken fragments in the Schøyen Collection in Oslo. Each surviving line records a count of one vessel, with a sign — inscribed inside or alongside the basic jar sign — specifying the vessel type or its contents. The tablet is so damaged that most entries are illegible or only tentatively readable, but the overall structure is a standard goods-tally of the kind that represents some of the very earliest writing in human history. The unexpected appearance of GAN~c (a field or enclosure sign) in what looks like a vessel list adds an unresolved puzzle for the scholars who edited it.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
What survives reads as a simple tally: one jar (type unclear), one jar of a specific kind (the designation is too damaged to read with certainty), one jar apparently associated with natron or a similar cleaning substance (though even this is uncertain), then another jar of an unidentified type, and so on — eight entries in all, each recording a single vessel. Most of the identifying details have been destroyed by the tablet's fragmentation, and the final line's count is entirely lost. All that remains is the skeleton of a once-complete inventory of containers.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[1] vessel, [...] [1] vessel — [DUG~b jar with unidentified sign] (uncertain) [1] vessel — [DUG~b jar with natron/soapwort sign] (very uncertain) 1 vessel — [DUG~b jar with unidentified sign] (uncertain) 1 (uncertain), [...] 1, GAN~c (?) [...] 1, GAN~c (?) [...] [N], [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[1(N01)] , [...] [1(N01)] , |DUG~bxX|# [1(N01)] , |DUG~bxNAGA~a|#? 1(N01) , |DUG~bxX|# 1(N01)# , [...] 1(N01) , GAN~c#? [...] 1(N01) , GAN~c#? [...] [N] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CDLI Lexical 000023, ex. 098. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006188) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.