Position in chronology
MSVO 1, 014
About this tablet
This is a small administrative tablet from the proto-literate city of Jemdet Nasr (or a related southern Mesopotamian center), dating to the very end of the Uruk period, roughly 3100–2900 BCE — among the oldest writing in the world. It appears to be a grain accounting record, tallying quantities of barley in connection with plowing or a plow-team, likely tracking disbursements tied to agricultural labor or seed grain. The tablet is badly worn, so most entries survive only as numerals with the descriptive text lost, but the final line preserves a fuller notation combining barley, a distribution marker, and the plow sign.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This damaged little clay record keeps count of barley. Most of the entries are now unreadable — just a string of numbers (one unit here, three units there) with the accompanying descriptions worn away. The last line is better preserved: it records a quantity of barley — using the large numeral notations 6, 2, and 1 in different counting systems — that was issued or allotted in connection with plowing, possibly rations or seed grain handed out to a plow-team. The rest of the tablet's details are lost to erosion.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Obverse) [...] , [...] 1(N01) [unit] , X X [...] (two undetermined signs) 3(N01) [units] , [...] 3(N01) [units] , [...] [...] , [...] [...] , [...] (Final/summary line) 6(N14) 2(N01) 1(N24) , X barley(SZE~a) — disbursed (BA) — plow/plow-team (APIN~a)
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(N01)# , X X [...] 3(N01)# , [...] 3(N01)# , [...] [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 6(N14)# 2(N01)# 1(N24)# , X SZE~a BA# APIN~a#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 1, 014. 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: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P005081) — 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.
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