Position in chronology
CUSAS 35, 030
About this tablet
A small land-allotment record from Adab, one of the great Sumerian cities of southern Iraq, dating to roughly 2600–2400 BCE. The tablet assigns standard parcels of farmland — one eše₃ apiece, about two hectares each — to a group of named individuals; at least one, Ur-gu, is identified by the institutional title of animal-fattener, a specialist who maintained livestock for a temple or palace. A smaller plot of one iku closes the list, followed by two further names whose connection to the entry is damaged. Documents like this are among the earliest records of systematic land management anywhere in the world — the bureaucratic skeleton of a Sumerian city-state economy, pressed into a tablet small enough to hold in one hand.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Five individuals each received a one-eše₃ parcel of farmland: Ma-NI-NI, SIG-mu, Ur-gu the animal-fattener, Ur-Peš-tur, and Šu-ma-ma. A sixth, smaller grant of one iku went to someone whose name begins PA-[...]-bala; the names Ur-tu and [A]ga-le follow in the closing lines, though whether they are additional recipients or part of the same entry is unclear. The last sign group is damaged and cannot be read with confidence.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 eše₃ of field: Ma-NI-NI; 1 eše₃: SIG-mu; 1 eše₃: Ur-gu, the animal-fattener (?); 1 eše₃: Ur-Peš-tur; 1 eše₃: Šu-ma-ma; 1 iku: PA-[...]-bala, Ur-tu; [A]ga?-le.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(esz3@c) GAN2 ma-NI-NI 1(esze3@c) SIG-mu 1(esze3@c) ur-gu kuruszda? 1(esze3@c) ur-pesz3-tur 1(esze3@c) szu-ma-ma 1(iku@c) PA-x-x?-bala ur-tu a-ga#?-le
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — CUSAS 35, 030. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P250713) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.