Position in chronology
CDLI Lexical 000026, ex. 056
About this tablet
This is a small, badly broken clay fragment from the Uruk period (roughly 3200–3000 BCE), one of the very earliest phases of writing, found at or near Umma in southern Iraq. It belongs to a standardized proto-cuneiform list — each line pairs the numeral 'one' with a sign naming a commodity, vessel, or implement (several entries reference a container or tool called TUN3~a, one described as 'large'). Most of the descriptive signs are lost to breakage, but the surviving pattern shows a scribe recording single units of named items, closing with a tally line combining two different numeral notations. Fragments like this are the building blocks scholars use to reconstruct the very first bureaucratic vocabulary of Mesopotamia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This chipped clay tablet preserves the remains of a tally list: line after line pairs the number 'one' with the name of some item, most of which are now illegible because the tablet is broken. Where signs survive, they include an unknown commodity called SZAKIR, then a pair of entries combining a 'SZU2-GU' term, one for a 'large' version of a container or tool called TUN3~a, and two more TUN3~a entries each further qualified by a small quantity sign. Near the bottom another entry mentions a sign that may relate to a hoe or agricultural term, though it too is broken. The tablet ends with a summary count combining two different number-signs, but what it was tallying — and most of the individual descriptions — is lost to damage.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(N01) , X [sign broken/illegible] 1(N01) , SZAKIR~b [commodity sign, unknown referent] 1(N01) , [......] 1(N01) , [......] 1(N01) , [......] 1(N01) , [......] 1(N01) , [......] 1(N01) , SZU2-GU 1(N01) , SZU2-GU [......] 1(N01) , GAL~a TUN3~a ("large TUN3~a"-vessel/implement) 1(N01) , 2(N57) SZU TUN3~a 1(N01) , 1(N57)? SZU TUN3~a 1(N01) , AL(?) [......] 1(N01) , [......] 1(N34) 4(N01) , [......] (summary/total line)
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(N01) , X 1(N01) , SZAKIR~b 1(N01)# , [...] 1(N01)# , [...] 1(N01)# , [...] 1(N01)# , [...] 1(N01) , [...] 1(N01) , SZU2# GU# 1(N01) , SZU2# GU# [...] 1(N01) , GAL~a TUN3~a 1(N01) , 2(N57) SZU# TUN3~a 1(N01) , 1(N57)? SZU# TUN3~a 1(N01) , AL#? [...] 1(N01) , [...] 1(N34) 4(N01)# , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CDLI Lexical 000026, ex. 056. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006172) — 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.
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.