Position in chronology
MS 4513
About this tablet
This is a small clay 'pillow-shaped' tablet from the Uruk period (roughly the late 4th millennium BCE), one of the very earliest forms of writing in Mesopotamia — a script of pictographic and numerical signs called proto-cuneiform, not yet capable of recording spoken language directly. It appears to be an administrative tally: rows of numeral notations paired with title-signs such as 'sanga' (a temple/storehouse official) and 'en' (a lord or high-ranking official), likely tracking quantities of a commodity — possibly grain, given the ŠE sign — allocated to or received by named offices. Found reportedly near Umma, it belongs to the archive-keeping tradition that gave rise to the first cities' bureaucracies, and much of its precise administrative meaning remains genuinely unresolved by scholars.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This looks like an early bookkeeping tablet: a series of tallies, each pairing a number with an official title or category. One entry credits a quantity to a 'sanga' (temple administrator) under a heading called KISZ; another records an amount for an 'en' (a lord or high official) under a place or category marked KI. Further lines list amounts against signs whose exact meaning is unclear today — possibly measures, storehouse names, or grades of grain — and one line notes something delivered 'into the hand of' an en-official. The reverse side carries a further run of plain numeral tallies, ending again with the KISZ and KI markers seen on the front. Altogether it reads like a short accounting note distributing or recording quantities of goods among a handful of officials and categories, though several of the terms cannot be translated with certainty.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse: 1. 1(N14) 1(N01), sanga(-official) — KISZ 2. 1(N14) 3(N01), en(-official) — KI 3. 6(N01), GEŠTU (sign) 4. 6(N01), NUN+EN (compound sign) 5. 8(N01), KAB 6. 1(N14) 2(N01), GAL ("great/large") 7. 3(N01), ŠE.NAM2 (grain-designation) — KAB 8. 3(N01), AN — ŠU2 ("into the hand of"/receipt formula) — en(-official) Reverse: 9. 2(N02) 10. 5(N14) 1(N01) 11. 1(N14) 5(N01) 12. 1(N34) 6(N01), KISZ — KI
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(N14) 1(N01) , SANGA~a KISZ 1(N14) 3(N01) , EN~a KI 6(N01) , GESZTU~b 6(N01) , |NUN~a+EN~a| 8(N01) , KAB 1(N14) 2(N01) , GAL~a 3(N01) , |SZE~a.NAM2| KAB 3(N01) , AN SZU2 EN~a 2(N02) , 5(N14) 1(N01) , 1(N14) 5(N01) , 1(N34) 6(N01) , KISZ KI
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC) ?) — MS 4513. 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 (P006313) — 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.