Position in chronology
MSVO 3, 46
About this tablet
One of the oldest written documents in human history, this small clay tablet from Uruk (in modern southern Iraq) dates to roughly 3200–3000 BCE, in the proto-cuneiform period when writing had only just been invented. It is an administrative record — the ancient equivalent of a warehouse ledger — tracking quantities of grain (most likely barley) and perhaps rations distributed to workers or officials. The signs for 'consumed,' 'disbursement portion,' and what may be a title or personnel category suggest this is part of an institutional food-allocation system, probably from the great temple storehouse at Uruk. Much of the tablet is damaged or broken, leaving its full content irrecoverable, but even its fragments are a direct window into the world's earliest bureaucracy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a badly damaged grain and ration record. What survives shows entries for quantities of barley alongside a title or personnel category (NAMESZDA), further numerical notations — including larger units — and markers indicating that commodities were consumed or disbursed as rations, with one entry possibly specifying a half-portion or divided allocation. A sign associated with a snake or female/divine category (MUSZ3~a) also appears, possibly identifying a recipient group. Most lines are too broken or eroded to read in full; the surviving entries are fragments of what was once a systematic accounting of grain distribution.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] 1(N14)# [...] , NAMESZDA# [...] 2(N45) 2(N14) [...] , barley [...] [...] 3(N39~a)# , [...] [...] 1(N39~a)#? [...] , [...] , [...] [...] , [...] MUSZ3~a# [...] , consumed/ration disbursed , [...] BAR [portion/disbursement]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] 1(N14)# [...] , NAMESZDA# [...] 2(N45) 2(N14) [...] , SZE~a [...] [...] 3(N39~a)# , [...] [...] 1(N39~a)#? [...] , [...] , [...] [...] , [...] MUSZ3~a# [...] , GU7 , [...] BAR
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 3, 46. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Land Berlin, Berlin, Germany (P005357) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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.