Position in chronology
MS 4499
About this tablet
This is a small clay tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), among the earliest writing systems in human history, likely from Umma in southern Iraq. It is an administrative account recording quantities of barley and other commodities — noted with proto-cuneiform numeral impressions and pictographic signs — apparently tracking rations or goods that were 'consumed' or disbursed. The tablet is badly broken, so only fragments of what was probably a longer list of transactions survive; even the individual signs remain debated among specialists because the writing system was still in its earliest, pictographic stage.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This looks like an old bookkeeping tablet — a tally of goods, mostly barley, being recorded in numbered batches. One entry lists a quantity tied to a sign that may mean something like 'yellow-green' quality and a substance still not firmly identified (perhaps a cleaning agent or a category of goods). Another lists a pairing of signs that could denote a class of persons or commodities, followed by a larger count linked to a festival-related sign. Twice the text simply notes that barley was 'consumed' — issued out to workers or a household. Larger numbers appear further down, again attached to barley, but the tablet breaks off before we can see what account they belonged to, and the rest of the entries are too damaged to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] 1(N39) [...] X 1(N14) 3(N39), |U4×1(N14)| SIG7 NAGA(?) 2(N01), AN BIR3(?) NUNUZ 6(N14), |EZEN×SU| (unnamed entry): barley (ŠE), consumed (GU7) [...] [...] X (unnamed entry): consumed (GU7) [...] [...] 1(N45) 7(N14) 4(N01) 1(N39), barley (ŠE) [...] [...] 1(N24)(?) 1(N26)(?), [...] , [...] 2(N45) 2(N01) [...], [...] , [...]
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
[...] 1(N39~a)# , [...] X 1(N14) 3(N39~a)# , |U4x1(N14)| SIG7 NAGA~a#? 2(N01) , AN BIR3~b? NUNUZ~a1 6(N14) , |EZEN~axSU~a| , SZE~a GU7 [...] , [...] X , GU7 [...] , [...] 1(N45) 7(N14) 4(N01)# 1(N39~a)# , SZE~a# [...] [...] 1(N24)#? 1(N26)#? , [...] , [...] 2(N45) 2(N01) [...] , [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MS 4499. 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 (P006303) — 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.