Position in chronology
MS 2843
About this tablet
One of the earliest written documents in human history, this small clay tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE) records a livestock count. It tallies different categories of sheep and goats — ewes, nanny-goats, rams, and others — with a final summary line noting a large disbursement. The use of proto-cuneiform numerical signs alongside animal logograms is characteristic of the very earliest administrative writing, invented not for literature but for keeping track of temple herds and goods.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records a count of livestock: 4 ewes, 7 nanny-goats, 11 young female sheep, 16 rams, 11 animals of an uncertain category, and 38 goats. The final entry tallies approximately 87 sheep overall, noting that a large consignment has been disbursed or allocated. The rest of the tablet is a summary or totaling line.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine4 ewes (U8) 7 nanny-goats (UD5) 11 [young?] female sheep (UTUA) 16 rams (UDUNITA) 11 [animals of category] NUN [3]8 goats (MASZ2) [1×60 + 2×10 + 7 =] 87 sheep (UDU) — 1 [large unit] disbursed (BA) [total/summary line]
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) , U8 7(N01) , UD5~a 1(N14) 1(N01) , UTUA~a 1(N14) 6(N01) , UDUNITA~a 1(N14) 1(N01) , NUN~b 3(N14)# 8(N01) , MASZ2 1(N34) 2(N14) 7(N01) , UDU~a 1(N57) BA ,
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2843. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006146) — 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.