MS 2358

~3100 BCE·Uruk Period·P006026

About this tablet

This is one of the earliest administrative records in human history, dating to the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), probably from the city of Umma in southern Iraq. A scribe used proto-cuneiform — the very beginning of writing — to track deliveries or rations of barley, livestock (sheep, a donkey, and a cow), and possibly silver, each in single unit quantities, with one larger quantity of three big measures of barley. The signs are pictographic and numerical rather than fully phonetic, making the exact reading uncertain, but the accounting logic is clear: commodities, quantities, and categories of people or institutions. It belongs to the moment when human beings first invented writing, not for literature or religion, but to keep track of goods.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

Each line records a single unit of a commodity: one allocation for an overseer or elder; one unit of barley deposited or delivered; one unit of barley brought in; one unit involving a cow; one unit covering a sheep and a donkey together; one unit of barley under a particular institutional heading. Then, in a separate section, a note about silver, a location, and an official — followed by three large measures of barley and another reference to an official, a location, and silver. The tablet is a running tally of goods moving through an early temple or palace storehouse, and the final lines may record a balancing or summary entry. Several signs in the middle are too worn or ambiguous to read with confidence.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Low confidence

1 unit — ŠU.TUR, elder/overseer (PAP) 1 unit — barley, SI, given/deposited (RU) 1 unit — BU, barley, brought (DU) 1 unit — barley, [X], cow (AB2) 1 unit — sheep (UDU), equid/donkey (ANŠE) 1 unit — AN, EŠDA, barley — silver (KU3), place/location (KI), branch/overseer (PA) 3 large units (3×N14) — barley — branch/overseer (PA), place/location (KI), silver (KU3), water/liquid (A)

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) , SZU TUR PAP~a
1(N01) , SZE~a SI RU
1(N01) , BU~a SZE~a DU
1(N01) , SZE~a X AB2
1(N01) , UDU~a# ANSZE~c
1(N01) , AN ESZDA SZE~a
, KU3~a KI A PA~a
3(N14) , SZE~a
, PA~a KI KU3~a A

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2358. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006026) — 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

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