Position in chronology
MS 2862/09
About this tablet
One of the oldest types of written documents known to humanity: a numerical administrative tablet from the Uruk period, roughly 3300–3000 BCE, likely recording quantities of some commodity — possibly grain, livestock, or another managed good — in the proto-cuneiform numerical notation that preceded fully readable writing. The tablet is badly broken into several fragments (visible in the photograph as at least five separate pieces), and only a handful of large numerical signs survive legibly. It comes probably from Umma in southern Iraq, and belongs to the Schøyen Collection in Oslo. These early tablets are fascinating because they show bookkeeping and bureaucracy emerging almost simultaneously with writing itself — accounting drove literacy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The surviving entries record large quantities in the Uruk-period counting system: one line shows a count of '1(N50) 4(N45)' — something on the order of several hundred units — followed by damaged or missing commodity signs. The next legible line reads '1(N63) 1(N50) 4(N48) 7(N34),' an even larger total, again with an unreadable commodity sign. The surrounding lines are too broken to recover. What we have is a fragment of an ancient accountant's tally — large numbers, unknown goods, the rest lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , [...] [...] , [...] X [...] 1(N50) 4(N45)[?] [...] , [...] 1(N63) 1(N50) 4(N48) 7(N34)[?] [...] , X [...] [...] , [...] [...] , [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] [...] , [...] X [...] 1(N50) 4(N45)# [...] , [...] 1(N63) 1(N50) 4(N48) 7(N34)# [...] , X [...] [...] , [...] [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2862/09. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006156) — 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.