Position in chronology
MS 2863/10
About this tablet
This is a small proto-cuneiform numerical tablet from the Uruk period, one of the very earliest phases of writing in southern Mesopotamia (roughly late 4th millennium BCE), probably from Umma. It is not a sentence or story but a running account: rows of circular and wedge-shaped number marks paired with commodity signs — rams, goats, sheep, a grain notation, and administrative category markers — tallying livestock and goods for some institution, likely a temple or estate storehouse. Tablets like this are the ancestors of literacy itself: bookkeeping notation that predates true writing of language by centuries.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a tally sheet. The surviving lines record counts of animals and goods against a set of category labels: an entry of one unit of an uncertain heated-vessel or oven commodity; a larger count (one big-unit plus seven small-units) under a category marked NUN; seven rams; nine goats; a line naming barley under a categorical label; and three sheep. A blank divider follows. Further down, a bigger tally (five big-units plus one small-unit) is linked to a broken commodity name and what looks like a 'tablet' or record-category marker, then another broken line, and finally a small tally of three units under a heading called BAR — probably marking how the goods were issued or divided. The beginning and some middle sections are too damaged to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , [...] [...] 1(N01), UTUA~a 1(N14) 7(N01), NUN~b 7(N01), rams (UDUNITA~a) 9(N01), goats (MASZ2) (entry:) barley-NAM2 (ŠE~a.NAM2) 3(N01), sheep (UDU~a) (blank / case divider) 5(N14) 1(N01), [...] LAGAB~a, DUB~a [...] , [...] X 3(N01), BAR
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)# , UTUA~a 1(N14) 7(N01) , NUN~b 7(N01) , UDUNITA~a 9(N01)# , MASZ2 , |SZE~a.NAM2|# 3(N01) , UDU~a , 5(N14) 1(N01) , [...] LAGAB~a# DUB~a [...] , [...] X 3(N01) , BAR
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2863/10. 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 (P006176) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
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.