Position in chronology
CUSAS 35, 203
About this tablet
A small lenticular administrative tablet from the Sumerian city of Adab (modern Bismaya, Iraq), dating to the Early Dynastic period, roughly 2600–2350 BCE. It records two or three consignments of 'long' objects under two named officials — Ur-Dumuzida and A-zuzu — with A-zuzu's entries linked to the city of Isin some distance away, pointing to inter-city administrative connections. A verbal form meaning 'he travels' or 'is dispatched' suggests goods or a courier in transit between centers. The five long wooden implements described as 'deposited' may be writing boards or measuring rods, which could explain the tablet's 'writing' thematic classification, though that identification remains uncertain.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Ten long, newly made items are recorded under the official Ur-Dumuzida. A second entry — the number damaged and partly lost — lists more long objects under a man named A-zuzu, associated with the city of Isin; someone has set out from a depot or storehouse with part of the consignment. Five long wooden implements have been deposited and are now in storage, again under A-zuzu of Isin. The middle lines are too worn or broken to read in full.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine10 — [items:] long and new Ur-Dumuzida [n] long? [...] A-zuzu Isin [x] from SIG₂ — he travels/is dispatched 5 long wooden implements, deposited A-zuzu Isin
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(u@c) ur2 gid2 u3 gibil ur-dumu-zi-da [n] gid2#? [...] a-zu-zu isin2 x SIG2-ta# im-kas4-e 5(disz@t) gesz-gid2 szub-ba a-zu-zu isin2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — CUSAS 35, 203. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P252787) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
Related tablets
Related sources
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.