Position in chronology
MSVO 3, 49
About this tablet
This is a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3350–3000 BCE), among the very earliest writing anywhere. It is a bookkeeping record — not a story or letter — tracking quantities of malt and barley, one entry explicitly tied to the city of Shuruppak (later famous as the home of the flood-hero Ziusudra) and another to an overseer official (kingal). Such tablets were the working paperwork of early temple or palace granaries, recording grain products moving in and out under named officials and places.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is a grain account. It records a quantity disbursed at a certain place, then a separate amount of malt marked with an overseer's notation, followed by another batch of malt specifically identified as coming from Shuruppak. Further down it lists an amount of barley connected to a bird-emblem, then a puzzling trio of terms that may refer to a reddish commodity, oil or fat, and a bundle or measure — the exact sense is lost to us. The tablet closes with a final quantity of barley credited to the overseer (kingal). Altogether it reads like a supervisor's tally of malt and barley moving through a granary or storehouse, with Shuruppak named as one source of the grain.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(N34) 3(N14) — disbursed (ba), at/from (ki) [...] 1(N45) — homeland/land (kalam), malt (bulug₃), overseer-mark (pa) 7(N14) 3(N01) — malt (bulug₃) of Shuruppak 1(N45) — bird(-sign), barley (še) — reddish (si₄), oil/fat(?) (ni), bundle(?) (sa) 2(N34) 3(N01) — barley (še), (the) overseer (kingal)
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(N34) 3(N14) , BA KI 1(N45) , KALAM~b BULUG3 PA~a 7(N14) 3(N01) , BULUG3 SZURUPPAK~b 1(N45) , MUSZEN SZE~a , SI4~f NI~a SA~c 2(N34) 3(N01) , SZE~a KINGAL
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 3, 49. 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 (P005360) — 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.