Position in chronology
MSVO 1, 085
About this tablet
This is one of the world's earliest written documents — a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the late Uruk or Jemdet Nasr period (roughly 3100–2900 BCE), now held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It records quantities of livestock (most probably sheep or goats) and several other commodities alongside institutional or official designations, the kind of detailed accounting that ancient temple or palace administrators kept. The writing system at this stage had not yet fully developed into the Sumerian language as later known; the signs are largely pictographic numerals and commodity markers. Though heavily damaged and broken into several fragments, this tablet offers a rare window into the very origins of writing as a tool for managing economic life.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The opening lines are lost. What survives records a series of commodity counts: a large number in one category, then 16 [or so] sheep or goats in another, followed by several further entries with quantities assigned to signs whose meanings remain uncertain — possibly bundles, personnel categories, or specific goods. One entry gives roughly 15 units of something associated with DUR~b (perhaps bundled goods); the final legible lines name an institutional or place designation (|NI~a.RU|) and a sequence involving the signs for 'great,' a staff or branch, and reed, possibly indicating an official title or issuing authority. Several lines are too damaged to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , [...] 5(N18) 2(N03) , 2(N34) 1(N14) 6(N01) [...] , UDU~a [sheep/goats] 1(N60)# 2(N52) , 3(N14) 5(N01)# , SZU2# 1(N14)# 2(N01)# , ME~a# 1(N14) 4(N01)# , ZATU753# [...] , KID~b# [...] [...] , [...] 1(N14) 5(N01) , DUR~b , X [...] |NI~a.RU| , GAL~a PA~a GI X [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] 5(N18) 2(N03) , 2(N34) 1(N14) 6(N01) [...] , UDU~a# 1(N60)# 2(N52) , 3(N14) 5(N01)# , SZU2# 1(N14)# 2(N01)# , ME~a# 1(N14) 4(N01)# , ZATU753# [...] , KID~b# [...] [...] , [...] 1(N14) 5(N01) , DUR~b , X [...] |NI~a.RU| , GAL~a PA~a GI X [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 1, 085. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P005152) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-18/v5-modern-rendering).
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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.