Position in chronology
MS 2862/05
About this tablet
One of the earliest forms of writing ever produced: a small clay tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), bearing proto-cuneiform numerical notations paired with commodity signs, most of which are now too damaged or broken to read. Tablets like this were the original bureaucratic tool of the ancient world — a scribe pressing a round stylus into wet clay to record quantities of goods, probably at a temple or household storehouse. The numbers themselves survive better than the labels for what was being counted, which is typical of heavily worn proto-cuneiform pieces. Despite its fragmentary state, this object represents the very birth of recorded information.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a partial tally. Where the surface survives, it records quantities: 2 of something, then 3 of something else (the label is damaged), then 2 more, then two separate single units. Most of the entries — both the numbers and especially the goods they refer to — are too broken or eroded to read. The rest is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , [...] [...] 2 , [...] [...] , [...] 3 , X [...] [...] , [...] 2 , [...] 1 , [...] 1 , [...] [...] , [...] [...] , [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] [...] 2(N01)# , [...] [...] , [...] 3(N01)# , X [...] [...] , [...] 2(N01)# , [...] 1(N01)# , [...] 1(N01)# , [...] [...] , [...] [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2862/05. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006152) — 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.