Position in chronology
MS 2863/02
About this tablet
One of the earliest written documents in human history, this small lenticular clay tablet dates to the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE) and was almost certainly made at or near the ancient city of Umma in southern Iraq. It is an administrative accounting record, tracking quantities of animals — most clearly sheep or rams — along with what may be wool or processed animal products, using the proto-cuneiform numerical notation that preceded true writing. Tablets like this one are the direct ancestors of all later cuneiform, and they show that the very first use of writing was not literature or religion but economic bookkeeping. The numerical signs are still clearly visible, making this a rare and vivid window into the bureaucratic origins of literacy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet records a livestock or wool account. At least one ram is listed under one unit, and another entry records 27 units of something designated by a quality or type marker. A further entry — partly broken — appears to involve wool or a fine-grade commodity combined with a process or official designation. The final readable line records a larger quantity (somewhere in the range of tens of units) associated with sheep, but the precise commodity and totals are lost where the clay is damaged. The rest of the entries are too broken to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , [...] [...] , UTUA~a (oven/furnace?) 1(N14) , UDUNITA~a (male sheep/ram) 2(N14) 7(N01) [= 27 units] , NUN~b (quality/type designator) [...] SIG RAD~a [...] (wool/fine [commodity] + [process/title]) 1(N34) 2(N14) [...] , [...] sheep [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] [...] , UTUA~a 1(N14) , UDUNITA~a 2(N14) 7(N01)# , NUN~b# , [...] SIG# RAD~a# 1(N34)# 2(N14)# [...] , [...] UDU~a [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2863/02. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006168) — 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.