Position in chronology
CUSAS 35, 476
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic administrative tablet from the Schøyen Collection in Oslo, recording a strikingly diverse mix of commodities under what appears to be a single institutional account labelled 'GAN-NE' — probably an estate name or a responsible official. The list ranges from bulk grain and wool to beer, a person (most likely a dependent laborer or slave counted as a commodity), ritual cleansing liquid, orchard fruits, fine textiles, and bread. The repeated appearance of 'GAN-NE' as a dividing label suggests the tablet organizes two batches or sub-accounts within the same holding. Such multi-commodity records are the everyday paperwork of early Mesopotamian palace and temple households, tracking the flow of goods in and out of a single administrative unit around 2500–2350 BCE.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
From the estate (or account) of GAN-NE: 2 gur and 3 barig of high-quality coarse barley. Recorded separately: 10 minas of garlic as a purchased commodity; half a unit of silver received; 12 minas of wool; one jar of beer; one person; and half a unit of ritual cleansing liquid. Fifty orchard fruits are also entered under GAN-NE. A second section then lists: 3 ban2 of emmer wheat, 30 orchard fruits, 10 fine garments (aktum-cloth), and 10 loaves of bread — with one unit charged to the silver account. The reverse of the tablet is blank.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 gur 3 barig of barley — coarse groats: [account of] GAN-NE 10 minas of garlic — (as) purchase commodity ½ (unit) of silver — received 12 minas of wool 1 (vessel of) beer 1 person ½ (unit) of ritual cleansing liquid 50 orchard fruits [account of] GAN-NE 3 ban2 of emmer wheat 30 orchard fruits 10 aktum-garments 10 (loaves of) bread; 1 (unit): silver account
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) 3(barig@c) sze gur sag-gal2 gan-NE 1(u@c) SZUM2# ma-na nig2-sa10 1/2(disz@c) ku3 szu 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) siki ma-na 1(asz@c) kasz 1(asz@c) sag 1/2(disz@c) suluhu2 5(u@c) haszhur@v gan-NE 3(ban2@c) ziz2 3(u@c) haszhur@v 1(u@c) aktum 1(u@c) ninda 1(asz@c) za3 ku3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — CUSAS 35, 476. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P250906) — 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.