Position in chronology
MSVO 3, 73
About this tablet
This is a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from Uruk-period southern Mesopotamia (roughly the late 4th millennium BCE), among the very earliest writing on earth. It is a multi-line institutional account tallying quantities of barley, allocations connected to a 'byre' (cattle-pen or storage building), a 'house' (a temple or estate), and titled personnel — a 'lady' (NIN), 'carpenters' (NAGAR), and 'temple administrators' (SANGA) — with numerals recorded in the archaic circular/wedge notation system rather than in the cuneiform script that would develop later. The tablet's reverse, visible in the photo, is dominated by dense grids of round numeral impressions, confirming its purpose as a quantitative ledger rather than a narrative text. Tablets like this one are the ancestors of bookkeeping itself: they record who received what, from which institution, long before writing could yet record connected sentences.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a record book entry from an early temple or estate near Uruk, tallying goods and personnel. It notes quantities of barley tied to a livestock pen and a household or temple building, under the authority of a woman of high status (or a goddess) and several named officials — carpenters and temple administrators. Other lines list further quantities linked to water, hand-tools, a mace, and a settlement, followed by what looks like a note about a reddish item and an animal that was 'consumed' (perhaps rationed out or used up) — though the tablet breaks off before the entry is complete, and the very end is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(N14) [units]: barley — (the) byre — NIN (lady/mistress) 2(N14) [units]: barley — horn — TUN3 — 3(N57) [units]: wood — house 6(N19) [units]: house — byre — NIN (lady/mistress) 2(N04) [units]: URI3 (standard) — NAGAR (carpenter) — GAL (great) — SANGA (temple administrator) — SANGA (temple administrator) [...]: NIN (lady/mistress) — NAGAR(?) (carpenter?) — byre 1(N19) 3(N41) [units]: PAP — SANGA (temple administrator) 2(N04) 1(N41) [units]: A (water) — RU (given/deposited) — ZI 2(N04) 1(N41) [units]: SZU2 (hand) — SZITA2 (mace) 1(N04) [units]: DA — ZATU694 — BU — URU (city/settlement) — PA 1(N19) [units]: 3(N57) [units]: wood — house — horn — TUN3 — SI4 (red) — AZ — GU7 (consumed) — SI4 (red) — AZ — [...]
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(N14)# , SZE~a# TUR3~a# NIN 2(N14) , SZE~a SI TUN3~a 3(N57) GISZ@t E2~a 6(N19) , E2~a TUR3~a NIN 2(N04) , URI3~a NAGAR~a GAL~a SANGA~a SANGA~a [...] , NIN NAGAR~a#? TUR3~a 1(N19) 3(N41) , PAP~a SANGA~a 2(N04) 1(N41) , A RU ZI~a 2(N04) 1(N41) , SZU2 SZITA~a2 1(N04) , DA~a ZATU694~c BU~a URU~a1 PA~a 1(N19) , 3(N57) GISZ@t E2~a SI TUN3~a , SI4~f AZ GU7 , SI4~f# AZ# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — MSVO 3, 73. 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 (P005384) — 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.