Position in chronology
MSVO 3, 17
About this tablet
This is a small proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly late 4th millennium BCE), one of the earliest kinds of writing in the world. It is a terse economic memorandum — a string of numeral notations paired with titles and institutional terms (a 'vizier,' a 'storehouse,' a 'lord,' a personal name, and a notice that something was 'consumed' or issued as rations) — the sort of bookkeeping entry temple or palace administrators used to track goods, labor, or disbursements. The tablet is broken on both sides and its surface worn, so the specific transaction it records cannot be fully reconstructed; it survives as fragments that preserve only parts of each line.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This looks like a fragment of an accounting record. It lists a quantity of something delivered or allotted, connected with an official called the 'vizier' or minister, followed by another term and a measuring unit. A second entry records another quantity tied to a storehouse and a person (or group) named Szubur. A third entry, for a larger quantity, involves a 'lord' or high official and a note that something was 'given' or 'deposited,' though the rest of that line is broken away. The next line simply notes that something was 'consumed' or issued out as rations. After that, another quantity appears, but the tablet breaks off and the remaining lines are too damaged to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(N03) [unit], [...] — the SUKKAL (vizier/minister), PAP~a, GI (measuring unit/reed). 1(N03) [unit] — the E2~a (storehouse) — SZUBUR. 3(N03) [units] — EN~a (lord/high official) — RU (given/deposited) [...]. — GU7 (consumed/rationed). 1(N18) 1(N03) [units] [...], [...]. [...]
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(N03)# , [...] SUKKAL# PAP~a# GI 1(N03) , |E2~ax1(N57)@t| SZUBUR 3(N03)# , EN~a RU [...] , GU7 1(N18)# 1(N03)# [...] , [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 3, 17. 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: Land Berlin, Berlin, Germany (P005328) — 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.