Position in chronology
CUSAS 35, 412
About this tablet
A personnel count or labor roster from southern Mesopotamia, probably Umma, dating to roughly 2600–2350 BCE. Eight named individuals — some holding official titles, including a nu-banda₃ officer (a mid-ranking administrative rank) — are each assigned a specific numerical count, likely of workers under their supervision or ration entitlements due to them. The entries sum exactly to 142, confirmed by the grand total on the final line, and in two cases the scribe used a subtraction formula — recording the expected ceiling figure and then deducting the shortfall — a bookkeeping convention already well established in these early records.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Eight supervisors or officials were each assigned a workforce count: Si-du₃ had 13; Ur-ni, 27 (listed as 30 minus 3 absent); the nu-banda₃ overseer, 25; Ur-nin-ildu₃, 20; Ur-sag-Utu, 15; Du-gani-du₁₀, 12; Ekur-nu-si, 11; and Ur-en-nun, 19 (recorded as 20 minus 1). The grand total is 142. What exactly was being counted — workers, ration-days, or some other unit — is indicated by a sign at the end of the total line that is now too worn to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine13 — Si-du₃ 27 (= 30 minus 3) — Ur-ni 25 — the overseer, [who is the] nu-banda₃ officer 20 — Ur-nin-ildu₃ 15 — Ur-sag-Utu 12 — Du₁₁-[ga]-ni-du₁₀ 11 — E₂-kur-nu-si 19 (= 20 minus 1) — Ur-en-nun Total: 142 [...]
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) 3(asz@c) si#-du3# 3(u@c) la2 3(disz@t) ur2-ni 2(u@c) 5(asz@c) ugula nu-banda3 2(u@c) ur-nin-ildu3 1(u@c) 5(asz@c) ur-sag-utu 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) du11-[ga]-ni-du10 1(u@c) 1(asz@c) e2-kur#-nu-si# 2(u@c) la2 1(disz@t) ur#-en-nun# 2(gesz2) 2(u) 2(disz@t) x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC) ?) — CUSAS 35, 412. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P252823) — 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.