Position in chronology
MS 2863/28
About this tablet
This small clay tablet from the Uruk period — roughly 3300–3000 BCE — is one of the earliest administrative records in human history, predating readable writing by centuries. It appears to record quantities of commodities or rations distributed under specific institutional categories, using proto-cuneiform signs that are only partially deciphered. The tablet's numerical entries (using the archaic N01, N14, and N57 signs) suggest a tally of goods — possibly including reeds, disbursements, or land-related items — managed by a temple or palace bureaucracy at or near ancient Umma in southern Iraq. It is a vivid example of how writing was invented not for literature or law, but for accountancy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet records several entries listing quantities against administrative categories. One entry notes 2 large units associated with 'PA' and 'UR3' signs; another records 1 large unit under 'PAP' and 'SU.' Further down: 7 units distributed (BA), 6 units of reeds or a reed-related category (GI), and 5 units apparently linked to 'the land' or a regional category (KALAM). The final legible line records a larger total — 1 higher-order unit plus 8 smaller units — against a delivery or receipt notation (DU TE), with surrounding text too damaged to read. The beginning and end of the tablet are broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , [...] [...] , 2(N57) PA~a UR3~b2 [...] , [...] [...] , 1(N57) PAP~a SU~a 7(N01) , BA 6(N01) , GI [5(N01)] , [KALAM~b] 1(N14) 8(N01) , [...] DU TE [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] , 2(N57) PA~a UR3~b2 [...] , [...] , 1(N57) PAP~a SU~a 7(N01) , BA 6(N01) , GI [5(N01)] , [KALAM~b] 1(N14) 8(N01)# , [...] DU TE [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2863/28. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006194) — 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.