Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 173
About this tablet
This is one of the earliest written documents in human history — a small administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), recording a list of commodities that were received, disbursed, or accounted for by a temple or palace institution. The entries include sheep, fish, fruit (probably apples or a similar orchard crop), jars, and containers alongside numerical notations in the proto-cuneiform counting system. The reverse is entirely blank, which is typical of these early rounded clay tablets. It is a snapshot of the very birth of writing: not literature or law, but accountancy — the original reason humans invented the script.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet opens with two or more entries now too damaged to read. Then it records: a quantity (4 large units, 2 medium, 1 small) of a commodity under a heading that may be a personal or institutional name; 3 sheep; 1 carp or similar fish; 1 large-unit entry; 1 jar with contents; 8 units of an unidentified consignment; 1 unit of an unidentified commodity; and 2 units of another. Further entries record 4 (possibly 5) apples or orchard fruit, 2 units of a commodity under the designation 'MA', and 2 units of a container. The final readable line appears to record a fresh or newly processed batch consumed or issued — the exact nature of that transaction is too fragmentary to pin down.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] [...] [...] [...] 4 (large units) 2 (medium units) 1 (small unit) — MU |ZATU714×HI@g~a| 3 (units) — sheep 1 (unit) — carp/fish (SUHUR) 1 (large unit, N52) 1 (unit) — jar with [contents] 8 (units) — [hand/consignment?] [1 (unit) — ZATU644~a] 2 (units) — ZATU753 [...] [...] 4 (units) [1 (unit)] — apple(s)/orchard fruit 2 (units) — MA ZATU735~b 2 (units) — [container/storehouse item] NI~a RU 2 (N57) SU~a GIBIL [GU7]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] [...] , [...] 4(N01) 2(N39~a) 1(N24) , MU |ZATU714xHI@g~a| 3(N14) , UDU~a 1(N01) , SUHUR 1(N52) 1(N01) , |DUG~cx1(N57)| 8(N01)# , [SZU2] [1(N01) , ZATU644~a] 2(N01) , ZATU753 [...] , [...] 4(N01) [1(N08)] , HASZHUR 2(N01) , MA ZATU735~b 2(N01)# , |GA2~a1xX| NI~a RU 2(N57) SU~a GIBIL [GU7]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 173. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P325064) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-18/v5-modern-rendering).
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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.
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.