Position in chronology
ATU 7, pl. 018, W 19416,a
About this tablet
One of the earliest written records in human history, this small clay tablet from Uruk (modern Warka, southern Iraq) dates to around 3100–3000 BCE — the very dawn of writing. It is an administrative account listing commodities such as a fiber or textile product (MA), fine wool or a similar fiber (SIG2), apple-like orchard fruit (HASZHUR), reeds (GI), and possibly a fermented or plant-based product (DIN), each with quantities recorded in the proto-cuneiform numerical system. The tablet was produced by an institutional scribe — likely attached to a large temple or storage complex — to track the movement or stockpiling of goods. Its interest lies precisely in its ordinariness: this is not a hymn or a royal proclamation but the world's oldest bookkeeping.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet records several batches of commodities with their quantities: 20 units of 'MA' (a fiber or material designated ZATU735); 20 units of GU-fiber, fine wool(?), and apple-fruit; 2 units of a fermented or plant product (DIN) in one type of container; 2 units in another container type; 10 units of a field-related item; some reeds and a grain-related sign with an accompanying marker; 7 units of MA; 2 higher-order units of apple-fruit; and another 20 units of MA with the ZATU735 designation. The last line is too damaged to read fully.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine20 [units], MA, ZATU735~b 20 [units], GU, fine wool(?), apple/orchard-fruit 2 [units], DIN, [vessel with sign |GAN~c×LAGAB~b|] 2 [units], [vessel with sign |GAN~c×X|] 10# [units], GAN~b [...], GI, |SAR~a׊E~a|, DA~a [...], DIN 7# [units], MA 2 [units] (higher order), apple/orchard-fruit 20 [units], MA#, ZATU735~b [...], |SAR~a׊E~a|#, A#, [...]
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 photo8 uncertain terms ↓
- ZATU735~b — An archaic Uruk-period sign not yet fully deciphered; its commodity referent is unknown. 'ZATU' = sign list of archaic Uruk texts (Englund & Grégoire).
- SIG2~b — Conventionally read as 'wool' or a wool-related product in Uruk-period contexts, but the precise reading is debated for the earliest period.
- HASZHUR — Generally interpreted as 'apple' or a similar orchard fruit; the exact species is uncertain.
- DIN — Commodity sign of uncertain referent in archaic Uruk texts; possibly a liquid (beer/oil) or processed product.
- |GAN~c × LAGAB~b| — Composite sign; GAN is associated with fields/land measurement in later texts, but the archaic value and referent here are not securely established.
- |SAR~a × ŠE~a| — Composite sign; SAR can mean 'garden' or be a measure; ŠE means 'barley/grain'. The combination may denote a grain-garden or measured grain plot, but is not fully resolved.
- MA — Commodity or vessel logogram; referent uncertain in the archaic corpus — possibly a boat (later Sumerian má) or a container type.
- N14, N01, N34 — Archaic numerical notation signs: N14 is a large impressed circle (value debated, often ~10 in some systems); N01 is a small impressed circle (~1); N34 is a large impressed circle with internal mark (~60 in some systems). Their exact values depend on the commodity counted (metrological context).
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows two faces of a roughly trapezoidal clay tablet catalogued as W 19416,a from Uruk. The upper image (obverse or reverse) is heavily weathered with a prominent crack running vertically; individual wedge impressions are discernible at the top — I can make out what appear to be large impressed circles/numerals on the left edge consistent with N14 or N01 notations, and angular sign groups to the right, though surface erosion makes precise sign-by-sign confirmation difficult. The lower image is better preserved: the left column clearly shows a column of large circular impressions (likely N14 or N01 numerals — I count approximately 4–5 distinct circles), and the right columns show more complex sign groupings including what appears to be a large composite sign consistent with |SAR׊E| or similar. The museum number 'W 19416,a' is visible handwritten on the upper photo. The overall layout — numeric notation in left column, commodity signs in right column — is entirely consistent with the scholar-provided transliteration for a Uruk-period archaic administrative tablet. The sign ZATU735~b cannot be positively identified from the photograph at this resolution. Several lines in the transliteration carry damage markers (#) and lacunae ([...]) that correspond to visibly eroded or broken areas in the photo, confirming the state of preservation described.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 12, 2026 · 3258 in / 1241 out tokens
Transliteration
2(N14) , MA ZATU735~b 2(N14) , GU SIG2~b HASZHUR 2(N01) , DIN |GAN~cxLAGAB~b| 2(N01) , |GAN~cxX| 1(N14)# , GAN~b , [...] GI |SAR~axSZE~a| DA~a [...] , DIN 7(N01)# , MA 2(N34) , HASZHUR 2(N14) , MA# ZATU735~b , |SAR~axSZE~a|# A# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk IV (ca. 3350-3200 BC)) — ATU 7, pl. 018, W 19416,a. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: German Archaeological Institute, Berlin, Germany (on loan, University of Heidelberg); Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (cast) (P003182) — 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.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.