OC 001 · Tablet · The Middle East
A clay tablet recording barley
- Number on this site
- OC 001
- What it is
- Tablet
- Made
- About 3100 to 2900 BC
- Period
- Jemdet Nasr period, Sumerian
- Material
- Clay
- Size
- 5.4 × 6 × 4.1 cm
- Now held by
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Museum number
- 1988.433.1
An account of barley handed out, written in proto-cuneiform, one of the earliest forms of writing, and rolled with a cylinder seal showing a man, hunting dogs and boars. Some of the very first writing was bookkeeping.1
Where it sits in human time
Made about 5,000 years ago. On this strip, each step to the right is ten times closer to today.
Seen in
- Writing, invented four times · The long human story
Filed under
Sources for this page
Every number on this page comes from one of these. How we check.
Last reviewed 12 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Proto-Cuneiform tablet with seal impressions: administrative account of barley distribution, probably from Uruk, ca. 3100–2900 BC. Collection record 329081, Open Access (CC0). www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/329081Used for: An early clay tablet that records barley. Checked 12 November 2026.