MSVO 3, 01

~3100 BCE·Uruk Period·P005312

About this tablet

This is one of the earliest written documents in human history — a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from Uruk (modern Warka, southern Iraq), dated to roughly 3200–3000 BCE, among the very first generations of writing ever practiced. It records quantities of commodities — most likely barley or cereal, reed mats or woven goods, and possibly timber — distributed to or held by institutional categories, including what may be a storage enclosure or household. The numerical notations use the complex sexagesimal and bisexagesimal systems characteristic of Uruk-period accounting. Like most tablets of this type, it is not a narrative text but a ledger: the bureaucratic backbone of one of the world's first cities, tracking goods in and out of a major temple or palace storeroom.

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

Written in modern English

This account records two entries under a supervisor or worker category (PAP~a), then a larger entry — 1(N46) 8(N19) 3(N04) units — associated with an enclosure, reed mats, and an institutional building, with some reference to a fuel or fire commodity. A subtotal or category heading follows for PAP~a. Then: 3(N34) 7(N14) 2(N01) units of barley (or cereal). A further quantity — 1(N49) 1(N46) 8(N19) 4(N04) — stands alone. Then 1(N46) 4(N19) 3(N04) units of timber (GISZ.TE). The final entry, partially broken, records [1(N49)?] 4(N34) 1(N45) 3(N01) units of barley, with 'horn(s)' and a location or institutional marker (KI). The rest is either lost or blank.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Low confidence

2(N46) IR~a PAP~a 1(N46) 8(N19) 3(N04) AB~b KID~b E2~b NE~a [blank/total?] PAP~a 3(N34) 7(N14) 2(N01) SZE~a 1(N49) 1(N46) 8(N19) 4(N04) 1(N46) 4(N19) 3(N04) |GISZ.TE| [1(N49)?] 4(N34) 1(N45) 3(N01) SZE~a SI KI

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

Engine notes

read from photo

6 uncertain terms ↓

IR~a — Archaic Uruk period logogram; phonetic value and meaning unestablished with certainty. Possibly a commodity or institutional label.
PAP~a — Possibly 'elder,' 'supervisor,' or a category title; meaning in this period is genuinely uncertain. May denote a type of worker or an institutional category.
AB~b KID~b E2~b NE~a — A compound sign cluster. AB~b may relate to a building or enclosure; KID~b to a reed-mat or product; E2~b to a house/institution; NE~a possibly fire or a commodity. The compound's meaning is not securely established.
|GISZ.TE| — A compound of the wood/tree sign (GISZ) and TE; possibly a wooden object or tool. Exact referent uncertain.
SI KI — Two logograms following the barley entry. SI may mean 'horn' or be a phonetic indicator; KI means 'place/ground' in later Sumerian. Together their administrative meaning here is unclear.
N46, N49, N34, N19, N04, N01, N14, N45 — Numerical signs belonging to the archaic sexagesimal (and possibly bisexagesimal or capacity) system. Exact values relative to each other depend on which sub-system applies to each commodity, which is not always determinable for this tablet.

Reasoning ↓

The photograph shows both faces and all four edges of a small, roughly square, lenticular clay tablet characteristic of the late Uruk period (Uruk III–IV, c. 3200–3000 BCE). The obverse (upper image) is divided by impressed lines into compartments (cases), each containing round and elongated impressed numerical signs alongside incised pictographic word signs. I can visually confirm: large round impressions consistent with N46/N34 numerical signs, smaller round impressions consistent with N19/N04, and incised pictographic signs in several cells including what appears to be ŠE (the ear-of-grain sign, confirmed on both obverse and reverse by its distinctive herringbone/feather form) and a sign cluster in the lower-right area of the obverse consistent with a building or institutional sign (E2~b complex). The reverse (lower image) also shows numerical impressions and the ŠE sign clearly. The tablet is well preserved on the upper face but shows some surface erosion on the lower-left of the obverse and around the edges; the '#?' marker in the transliteration for N49 in the last line is consistent with what appears to be a slightly damaged or ambiguous impression in the lower register. The sign readings from the photo broadly align with the transliteration provided. The logographic signs IR~a, PAP~a, AB~b, KID~b, NE~a, and |GISZ.TE| cannot be individually verified at this resolution with full confidence, but the overall layout and numerical sign distribution match the transliteration. Meanings of most logograms at this pre-cuneiform stage remain contested in scholarship (Englund, Nissen, Damerow MSVO series).

Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 14, 2026 · 1866 in / 1200 out tokens

Transliteration

2(N46) , IR~a PAP~a
1(N46) 8(N19) 3(N04)# , AB~b KID~b E2~b NE~a
, PAP~a
3(N34) 7(N14) 2(N01) , SZE~a
1(N49) 1(N46) 8(N19) 4(N04) ,
1(N46) 4(N19) 3(N04) , |GISZ.TE|
1(N49)#? 4(N34) 1(N45) 3(N01) , SZE~a SI KI

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 3, 01. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Land Berlin, Berlin, Germany (P005312) — 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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