MS 2438

~3100 BCE·Uruk Period·P006055

About this tablet

A livestock account from southern Iraq, about 3100 BCE and perhaps from Umma. It is written in proto-cuneiform, the earliest stage of writing. The obverse counts sheep and goats one category at a time: ewes, nanny goats, goats, rams, and two classes whose meaning is unclear. The reverse gives the total. The scribe's arithmetic is correct, which shows that careful bookkeeping of flocks was one of the first jobs writing was used for.

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

Written in modern English

Flock count: 2 ewes, 20 nanny goats, 28 goats, 27 animals of the kind listed as 'NUN', 4 of the kind listed as 'UTUA', and 10 rams. On the back, the scribe totals them at 91 and labels the total with the signs for sheep, fish, bird and goat. A second, larger figure of 257 follows. The sign after it is damaged and the rest of that line is lost, so we don't know what it counted.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

Obverse 2 ewes (U8) 20 nanny goats (UD5~a) 28 goats (MASZ2) 27 (animals of the category) NUN~b 4 (animals of the category) UTUA~a 10 rams (UDUNITA~a) Reverse (Total:) 91: sheep (UDU~a), fish (KU6~a), bird (MUSZEN), goat (MASZ) 257: X [...]

Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.

Transliteration

2(N01) , U8
2(N14) , UD5~a
2(N14) 8(N01) , MASZ2#
2(N14) 7(N01)# , NUN~b
4(N01) , UTUA~a
1(N14) , UDUNITA~a
1(N34) 3(N14) 1(N01) , UDU~a KU6~a MUSZEN MASZ
4(N34) 1(N14) 7(N01) , X [...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2438. 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 (P006055) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet (VAT 15211)

An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.

~2050 BCE

Umma Livestock and Personnel Account (AnOr 1, 243)

A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.

~3300 BCE

AoF 30, 238,1