Position in chronology
MSVO 1, 116
About this tablet
This is a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the late Uruk / Jemdet Nasr period, probably dating to around 3100–2900 BCE, found at or near Jemdet Nasr in southern Iraq. It records quantities of sheep and what appears to be a second commodity — likely fish (SUHUR, a known fish-type in early accounts) — alongside possible barley and reed entries, under the authority of an EN (lord or chief administrator). Tablets like this are among the earliest written documents in human history: not literature, but institutional bookkeeping, tracking goods flowing through a temple or palace storehouse. The appearance of the EN title suggests this record was linked to a high-status administrative institution.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet lists livestock and other goods in short entries: 1 sheep, 2 fish; 1 sheep, 5 fish; then some commodities that are too damaged to read clearly — possibly reeds and barley; then 2 more sheep and 7 fish. A subtotal or grand-total figure follows, and the last readable line associates the account with a high official (the EN) and a large round number. Think of it as a tally sheet kept by a storehouse clerk, tracking incoming or outgoing animals and provisions under a temple lord's authority. The final lines are partially broken and cannot be fully read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 sheep, 2 SUHUR(-fish?), 1 sheep, 5 SUHUR(-fish?), [...] KAB? LAGAB GI, [...] ŠE (barley?), 2 sheep, 7 SUHUR(-fish?), 1(N40) [subtotal or grand total], [...] EN 1(N57)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(N01) , UDU~a# 2(N01) , SUHUR# 1(N01) , UDU~a 5(N01) , SUHUR , KAB#? LAGAB~b GI , SZE~a#? 2(N01) , UDU~a 7(N01) , SUHUR 1(N40) , , [...] EN~a# 1(N57)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 1, 116. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P005183) — 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.