Position in chronology
CDLI Lexical 000030, ex. 057
About this tablet
This is a small, badly broken fragment of a proto-cuneiform administrative or lexical tablet from the Uruk period, probably from Umma. It records a short series of commodities — apparently malt or a grain product, an aromatic plant (GAZI), and quantities of fish (SUHUR) — each tallied with simple numeral notations (small and larger impressed circles, N01 and N14). Tablets like this belonged to the earliest writing system on earth, roughly 3200–3000 BCE, when scribes were tracking rations and goods moving through a temple or palace household rather than composing literature.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This chipped clay fragment lists a handful of goods with their quantities, most of it now lost to breakage. One line records '1 unit' of something whose sign is damaged, possibly a wooden object or the word for 'elder.' The next two lines tally 5 units each of what may be malt and of a spice or aromatic plant called gazi. Another '1 unit' entry is entirely broken away. Then come two entries of fish, likely carp, each counted with a larger unit-sign, followed by a batch of container- or product-signs whose meaning is not yet understood. The remaining five lines are too damaged to make out anything beyond a stray numeral or an unidentified sign — the tablet breaks off before we can tell how the full list, or its purpose, concluded.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(N01), [......] X AD~a(?) 5(N01), MUNU3(?) 5(N01), GAZI 1(N01), [......] 1(N14), SUHUR 1(N14), KAR2~b 1(N01), [......] 1(N01), [......] 1(N01), X [......] 1(N01), [......] [N], [......] X
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(N01) , [...] X AD~a#? 5(N01) , MUNU3? 5(N01) , GAZI 1(N01) , [...] 1(N14) , SUHUR 1(N14) , KAR2~b 1(N01) , [...] 1(N01) , [...] 1(N01) , X [...] 1(N01) , [...] [N] , [...] X
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CDLI Lexical 000030, ex. 057. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006217) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
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