MS 2997

~3100 BCE·Uruk Period·P006254

About this tablet

This is a tiny fragment of an administrative tablet from the very earliest phase of writing, the Uruk period (roughly 3200–3000 BCE), likely from the Umma region in southern Iraq. It records a short list of entries — each combining a numeral notation with a string of pictographic signs — that most likely track quantities of a commodity or ration allotted to or overseen by named officials or institutional categories ('lord', 'overseer', 'house'). Because the script is proto-cuneiform, essentially still pictographic, and the tablet is broken at both ends, much of its precise bureaucratic meaning remains unrecoverable — it is a glimpse of accounting practice at the very dawn of writing rather than a fully legible document.

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

Written in modern English

This is a damaged accounting tablet from one of the earliest writing systems ever used. What survives looks like a short list: several entries, each pairing a small number with a handful of pictographic terms that seem to name officials, categories of goods, or institutional units — a 'lord' here, an 'overseer' there, a 'house' or 'the land' elsewhere. The opening and a middle line are completely lost, and the final surviving line records the number 4 tied to more of the same terms before the text breaks off again. Because the signs are still close to pictures rather than fixed words, we can reconstruct the general shape of a bookkeeping entry, but not confidently say what was actually being counted or why.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Low confidence

(Line 1) [...] , [...] (Line 2) SI4 (reddish/processed commodity) — EN (lord/high official) — TE (uncertain category) (Line 3) [...] , [...] (Line 4) 1(N01): SI (horn?) — KU — PA (overseer) — E2 (house/estate) (Line 5) 1(N01): SI4 (reddish/processed commodity) — GI (reed?) — IN — AN (sky/divine marker) — PA (overseer) (Line 6) KALAM (land/country) — PA (overseer) — BU (Line 7) 1(N01): SI (horn?) — LAGAB — AN (sky/divine marker) — SAG (head) — GI (reed?) (Line 8) [...] , [...] (Line 9) 4(N14): SI4 (reddish/processed commodity) — EN (lord/high official) — RAD (uncertain)@g [...]

Our translation engine — Sonnet 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

[...] , [...]
, SI4~f EN~a TE
[...] , [...]
1(N01) , SI KU~b1 PA~a E2~b
1(N01) , SI4~f GI IN~b AN PA~a
, KALAM~a PA~a BU~a
1(N01) , SI LAGAB~a AN SAG GI
[...] , [...]
4(N14) , SI4~f EN~a RAD~a@g [...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 2997. 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 (P006254) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-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