MSVO 1, 116

~3100 BCE·Uruk Period·P005183

About this tablet

This is a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Jemdet Nasr / Uruk III period (roughly the last centuries of the 4th millennium BCE), one of the earliest forms of writing in the world. It is essentially an inventory or tally list — recording small livestock (sheep), quantities of a fish commodity (called suhur, possibly carp), a measured quantity involving reed and a container or category sign, and barley — grouped under the authority of a high-status official or institution (EN). Tablets like this come from the earliest bureaucratic recordkeeping in southern Mesopotamia, tracking the movement of food and goods through emerging city administrations at sites like Jemdet Nasr.

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

Written in modern English

This tablet is a tally sheet. It lists: one sheep; two units of carp (or a fish-based measure); one more sheep; five units of carp; then an entry involving an uncertain container or category term together with a reed-measure; a quantity of barley; two more sheep; seven units of carp; one entry in a different counting notation; and finally, after a break, an entry naming or invoking a lord or presiding official, with one further unit recorded in yet another numeral notation. In short: a running account of sheep, fish, and grain moving through some institution's stores, overseen by an official whose name or title is only partly preserved.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Low confidence

1 (N01-unit): sheep. 2 (N01-units): suhur-fish (carp). 1 (N01-unit): sheep. 5 (N01-units): suhur-fish (carp). KAB(?) — LAGAB — reed(-measure). barley(?). 2 (N01-units): sheep. 7 (N01-units): suhur-fish (carp). 1 (N40-unit): [...]. [...] lord/official (EN): 1 (N57-unit).

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) , UDU~a#
2(N01) , SUHUR#
1(N01) , UDU~a
5(N01) , SUHUR
, KAB#? LAGAB~b GI
, SZE~a#?
2(N01) , UDU~a
7(N01) , SUHUR
1(N40) ,
, [...] EN~a# 1(N57)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 1, 116. 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 (P005183) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

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Related sources

~3200 BCE

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~3300 BCE

AoF 30, 238,1