Position in chronology
CUSAS 35, 407
About this tablet
A small Early Dynastic clay tablet, probably from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, dating to roughly 2500–2350 BCE. It is a livestock allocation register: an institutional administrator listed lots of ewes, rams, and she-goats — 22 animals in all — each assigned to or received from a named individual herder or official. The animals were to be issued as a 'kuruszda,' a fattening ration, meaning they were most likely being prepared for ritual slaughter at a temple feast or official ceremony. Documents like this were the routine paperwork of Sumerian institutional animal husbandry.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two ewes assigned to Uzug. Two rams under ki-de5-de5. Two ewes and two rams under A-zu-zu. One ewe and one ram under Ur-Abzu. Two ewes under Amar-ki-ku3. Two rams under Gu-ni-DU. One ewe and one ram belonging to an unnamed male shepherd. One she-goat under En-sila-si. Three she-goats under Du11-ga-ni. The next line records sheep acquired 'from the street,' with a partially lost institutional designation and a date that appears to read the 29th day of the fourth month of the year [me-an-ne2-du10] — that stretch of the tablet is cracked and hard to read. All of these animals were issued as a fattening ration. Grand total: 22 sheep.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 ewes — Uzug 2 rams — ki-de5-de5 2 ewes, 2 rams — A-zu-zu 1 ewe, 1 ram — Ur-Abzu 2 ewes — Amar-ki-ku3 2 rams — Gu-ni-DU 1 ewe, 1 ram — male shepherd 1 [she-goat] — En-sila-si 3 she-goats — Du11-ga-ni Sheep from the street — |LAK617×HI| — 29 [days?] — year, 4th month[?] — [me-an-ne2-du10] (damaged) Fattening ration (kuruszda) — given Total: 22 sheep
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
2(asz@c) u8 uzug 2(as@c) udu-nita ki-de5-de5 2(asz@c) u8 2(asz@c@90) udu-nita a-zu-zu 1(asz@c) u8 1(asz@c@90) udu-nita ur-abzu 2(asz@c) u8 amar-ki-ku3 2(asz@c) udu-nita gu-ni-DU 1(asz@c) u8 1(asz@c@90) udu-nita nita sipa 1(asz@c) LAK020 en-sila-si 3(asz@c) ud5 du11-ga-ni udu sila-ta |LAK617xHI| 3(u) la2 1(disz@t) mu iti 4(disz@t)#? me-an-ne2-du10# kuruszda szum2-ma 2(u) 2(disz@t) udu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC) ?) — CUSAS 35, 407. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P252810) — 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.