Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 174
About this tablet
This is one of the earliest written documents in human history — a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period, roughly 3300–3100 BCE, before writing had fully developed into a complete language system. It records quantities of commodities — apparently fish, birds, and vessels — associated with an institutional storehouse or temple precinct, overseen by a high official (possibly a sanga-priest or temple administrator). The tablet is small, lens-shaped, and bears a hole near its center, suggesting it may once have been strung or tagged. Tablets like this are the direct ancestors of all later writing: institutional accountants in southern Mesopotamia invented cuneiform specifically to keep records like this one.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Five large units are recorded under the authority of a temple administrator (sanga) together with a numerical notation. The goods tracked include fish associated with a courtyard, birds linked to a storehouse, and various jar or vessel quantities at a specific location. Several lines name or invoke high-status terms — possibly a lord or priestly title — alongside categories whose exact meaning is still debated by scholars. The final lines are too damaged or too archaic to read with confidence.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine5 (large units), [official title: SANGA] — [sign: |U4×3(N57)|] Fish — courtyard [or forecourt] Bird(s) — storehouse/building [Signs: SI] — [Signs: ME] [EN/lord] — [NE] [BU] — [PAP] — [NAM2] [LAGAB+LAGAB] — vessel/jar — place/location [...] hand/receive [...] [two damaged/unread signs] [TE?] — [RU?]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
5(N47) , SANGA~a# |U4x3(N57)| , KU6~a KISAL~b1 MUSZEN# E2~a SI ME~a EN~a NE~a BU~a PAP~a NAM2 |LAGAB~b+LAGAB~b| DUG~a KI [...] SZU# [...] X X TE# RU#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 174. 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 (P325162) — 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.