MSVO 1, 216

~3100 BCE·Uruk Period·P005283

About this tablet

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 the allocation or receipt of commodities — primarily barley and associated goods — against different categories of workers or recipients, including what appears to be a female worker of highland origin and a group of dependents. Documents like this are among the earliest written records in human history, used by temple or palace administrators to track the movement of food and other resources. The archaic pictographic signs are not yet fully deciphered, making precise readings provisional.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

This tablet tracks several batches of commodities across different accounts. One entry records barley received on behalf of a highland woman (or a group of highland female workers). Another logs barley along with aromatic goods, possibly spices or condiments. A third entry combines what may be syrup or honey, a supervisory designation, water, and silver or a precious commodity. There follow entries for dependent workers, an unidentified quantity of goods, a small bread or ration allocation at a storage pit, a remainder or leftover water allocation, and finally a quantity of barley marked as rations disbursed. The rest of the tablet's detail is too damaged or ambiguous to read precisely.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Low confidence

2(N14) [units]: woman/female [of] highland [origin] — barley — received 2(N14) 4(N01) [units]: barley — [processed/consumed?] — aromatics/spices 3(N14) [units]: [honey/syrup?] — branch/overseer — water — silver/pure [metal] 1(N20) 3(N05) [units]: dependent/servant workers 3(N03) [units]: [subcategory/unidentified] 1(N01) [unit]: bread/ration allocation — well/pit? 2(N01) [units]: TAK4 [remainder/leftover?] — water 1(N45) 4(N01) [units]: barley — ration disbursed/consumed

Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

Transliteration

2(N14) , |SAL.KUR~a| SZE~a SZU
2(N14) 4(N01) , SZE~a KU~b1 SZIM~a
3(N14) , LAL2~a PA~a A KU3~a
1(N20) 3(N05) , UR5~a
3(N03) ,
1(N01) , GAR PU2?
2(N01) , TAK4~a A
1(N45) 4(N01) , SZE~a GU7

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 1, 216. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P005283) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).

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