Position in chronology
MSVO 1, 007
About this tablet
This is one of the earliest written documents in human history — a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from Jemdet Nasr in southern Iraq, dating to roughly 3000–3100 BCE, before writing had fully developed into a readable language. It records quantities of barley associated with institutional offices or categories such as 'field' (GAN2) and 'lord/EN,' almost certainly a ledger of grain allocations or harvests managed by a large temple or palace estate. The tablet survives in several joining fragments and is photographed from multiple sides. It belongs to the very first generation of written record-keeping anywhere on Earth, making even its damaged and partly unreadable entries historically remarkable.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Several large consignments of barley are recorded under different headings: one lot tied to a 'field' category, another to the office of the 'lord' (EN), and further entries linked to institutional categories whose names survive only partially. The quantities — running into hundreds of liters by any plausible reckoning — suggest this is a summary or pooling account from a major grain-managing institution. Several lines are too damaged or broken to read completely; the rest is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3(N14) 4(N01) 1(N39~a) , [commodity sign] BARLEY [...] 3(N19) 4(N04) , SI4~f BU~a PAP~a NAM2 6(N19) [...] , [sign] KI [sign] [...] 4(N19) 1(N04) 3(N41) , [SZU?] [...] , EN GI [sign] [...] 8(N14) 1(N01) 4(N39~a) , FIELD BARLEY [2(N46) 7(N19) 5(N04) 4(N41) 1(N24~b)?] , BARLEY SI4 1(N36) 6(N14) 1(N01) 3(N39~a) 1(N24) , BARLEY EN
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
3(N14) 4(N01) 1(N39~a) , X SZE~a [...] 3(N19)# 4(N04)# , SI4~f BU~a PAP~a NAM2# 6(N19)# [...] , X KI X [...] 4(N19) 1(N04)# 3(N41) , SZU#? [...] , EN~a GI X [...] 8(N14) 1(N01) 4(N39~a)# , GAN2# SZE~a [2(N46) 7(N19) 5(N04) 4(N41) 1(N24~b)?] , SZE~a SI4~f 1(N36)# 6(N14)# 1(N01) 3(N39~a) 1(N24) , SZE~a EN~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 1, 007. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P005074) — 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.