Position in chronology
CDLI Lexical 000023, ex. 098
About this tablet
A small, badly worn fragment of one of the oldest standardized 'textbooks' in the world: the archaic Vessels list, copied over and over by scribes in southern Mesopotamia around 3200–3000 BCE. Each line pairs the numeral 'one' with a picture of a jar whose interior markings specify its contents — here a jar of the alkali-plant naga, among others too damaged to identify. It is not a record of real jars but a scribal exercise in the vocabulary of containers, part of the earliest curriculum of writing itself, this copy possibly from Umma.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a scribe's copy of a standard word list of vessels, with each entry ticked off by the numeral one: one jar of an unidentifiable substance, one jar of naga (an alkali plant used for washing), another jar whose contents-mark is too worn to read, and then two entries for a GAN-type container. The first line, one middle line, and the final line — which began with a numeral — are lost to breakage, and the rest of the tablet is gone.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse, single preserved column) [1] , [entry lost] [1] , one jar (DUG) with [unidentified] contents [1] , one jar containing naga (alkali-plant)(?) 1 , one jar with [unidentified] contents 1 , [entry lost] 1 , GAN-container(?) [...] 1 , GAN-container(?) [...] [n] , [entry lost] (remainder broken)
Our translation engine — Fable 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)] , [...] [1(N01)] , |DUG~bxX|# [1(N01)] , |DUG~bxNAGA~a|#? 1(N01) , |DUG~bxX|# 1(N01)# , [...] 1(N01) , GAN~c#? [...] 1(N01) , GAN~c#? [...] [N] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CDLI Lexical 000023, ex. 098. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P006188) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.