Position in chronology
MS 2868
About this tablet
This is one of the earliest written documents in human history — a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period, probably around 3100–2900 BCE, and possibly from the city of Umma in southern Iraq. It records quantities of commodities — likely grain, dairy products, and related goods — assigned to or managed by institutional officials, possibly including a temple administrator (sanga). Tablets like this are the very origin of writing itself: script was invented not for poetry or religion, but for bureaucratic record-keeping of exactly this kind. The numerals and commodity signs are clear enough to confirm it is an accounting document, though the precise nature of each commodity and the full totals remain uncertain due to damage.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records a series of commodity allocations in descending quantities: eight large units of a grain category (possibly barley), eight large units of a dairy or fat product, three large units of a partially illegible category, two large units under a heading that may relate to a legal or institutional function, one large unit assigned to a specific office or implement, then a smaller sub-entry of four medium units of eggs or seed-goods linked to a storehouse or temple title. One basic unit is listed as ešda (a measured portion). A larger combined total — two high-order plus two large-circle plus four medium units — is recorded under a heading involving eggs or seed and the NE sign. The final line attributes the account to a sanga (temple administrator or chief accountant). The remainder of several entries is too damaged to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine8(N34), NUNUZ — [commodity: |ŠE.NAM2|] 8(N34), GA (large?) [commodity] 3(N34), NAM2 PA RAD X [...] 2(N34), DI RAD 1(N34), GIR3 4(N14), NUNUZ — 3(N57) |EN2.E2| 1(N01), EŠDA 2(N48) 2(N34) 4(N14), NUNUZ — NE [...] SANGA — TE RAD
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
8(N34) , NUNUZ~a1 |SZE~a.NAM2| 8(N34) , GA~a# GAL~a# 3(N34) , NAM2# PA~a# RAD~a# X [...] 2(N34) , DI RAD~a 1(N34) , GIR3~c 4(N14) , NUNUZ~a1 3(N57) |EN2.E2~b| 1(N01) , ESZDA 2(N48) 2(N34) 4(N14) , NUNUZ~a1 NE~a , SANGA~a TE RAD~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2868. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006198) — 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.