Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 219
About this tablet
One of the earliest written records in human history, this small clay tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE) is a proto-cuneiform administrative account. It records quantities of various commodities and possibly personnel categories — fish, aromatics, eggs or offspring, and references to a courtyard and storehouse — using impressed numerical signs alongside pictographic word-signs. Tablets like this were the first steps toward writing: not literature, but the bookkeeping of a large institution, probably a temple or palace in southern Mesopotamia. Its exact origin is unknown, but it belongs to the very dawn of recorded human history.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records a set of allocations or inventories across several categories: a mixed entry involving fish and a courtyard, a batch assigned to a runner or foot-messenger, a quantity tied to a room or corner and a ration-person, another involving eggs (or offspring) under a female supervisor, one entry for aromatics or spices linked to a storehouse, and a final damaged entry noting a location. The quantities are expressed in large impressed numerals. The last line is too broken to read fully.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(N01) 1(N39~a) — MUD, NA~a, BU~a fish (KU6~a), courtyard (KISAL~b1) 2(N39~a) — AN, foot/runner (GIR3@g~b) 3(N39~a) — corner/room (UB), ration/person (ZI~a)[?] 2(N39~a) — eggs/offspring (NUNUZ~a1), mother/female supervisor (AMA~a) 1(N39~a) — aromatic/spice (SZIM~a), storehouse (E2~b) 1(N39~a)[?] — place/location (KI)[?] [...]
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(N39~a) , MUD NA~a BU~a KU6~a KISAL~b1 2(N39~a) , AN GIR3@g~b 3(N39~a) , UB ZI~a# 2(N39~a) , NUNUZ~a1 AMA~a 1(N39~a) , SZIM~a E2~b 1(N39~a)# , KI# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 219. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Rare Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York, USA (P006351) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-18/v5-modern-rendering).
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.