MS 2516

~3100 BCE·Uruk Period·P006084

About this tablet

This is a small proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), catalogued as MS 2516 in the Schøyen Collection. It records the disbursement or allocation of commodities — likely reed mats and rations for musicians or workers — using the earliest known form of writing, which was not yet a full language but a numerical accounting system. The obverse and reverse each preserve parallel sets of entries, suggesting a two-part account, possibly inputs versus outputs or two separate distributions. Tablets like this are among the oldest documents in human history and reveal that writing was invented primarily to track goods and labour in large institutional households such as temples.

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

Written in modern English

This tablet records two parallel sets of allocations. A large quantity (N52) is marked as distributed ('BA'). Under it: 2 units received (SZU2 — 'into the hand of'), 3 units of reed matting (KID), 1 unit for a musician (NAR). The reverse repeats the same pattern — 3 large quantities, then 2 received, 3 reed mats, 1 musician ration — and closes with 1 unit of N34 labelled NIM~a, possibly a geographic or institutional tag. The final lines are too damaged to read.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Low confidence

Obverse: [1(N52)] BA [...] 1(N52) [quantity] 2(N01) SZU2 3(N01) KID~b 1(N01) [NAR SU~a] 1(N52) [quantity] [...] [...] Reverse: 3(N52) [large quantity] 2(N01) SZU2 3(N01) KID~b 1(N01) NAR SU~a 1(N34) NIM~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(N52) , BA#
, [...]
1(N52) ,
2(N01) , SZU2
3(N01) , KID~b#
1(N01)# , [NAR SU~a]
1(N52)# ,
[...] , [...]
3(N52)# ,
2(N01) , SZU2
3(N01) , KID~b
1(N01) , NAR SU~a
1(N34) , NIM~a
, [...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2516. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006084) — 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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