Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0067
About this tablet
A daily labor roster from Garšana, a private estate town in southern Iraq run by the princess Simat-Ištaran and her husband, the general Šu-Kabta, around 2036 BCE. A work gang of builders, unskilled men, and six women under a foreman named Ba-zi was assigned to crush malt for brewing, and their attendance was checked by an inspection recorded by two named officials — the estate manager Iškur-illat and the scribe Puzur-Ninkarak. The Garšana archive is unusual for how many women it shows in the workforce, and for the precision with which it dates every work detail to a single day.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Work assignment, day 28 of the month of the Šulgi festival, in the second year of King Šu-Suen of Ur. A crew of builders, a number of laborers, and six women, all under foreman Ba-zi, were put to work crushing malt. The roll was checked and the crew inspected. Filed by Iškur-illat, the estate's chief administrator, together with the scribe Puzur-Ninkarak, at Garšana. The opening lines giving the exact number of men are broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[n male workers, builders], [n] male workers, 6 female workers — foreman: Ba-zi; stationed to crush malt. [Inspection] performed. [Via Iškur]-illat, the chief household administrator (šabra), [and Puzur-]Ninkar[ak], the scribe. In Garšana. Month: "Festival of Šulgi." Year: Šu-Suen, king of Ur, [erected] the Great Stele for Enlil [and Ninlil]. Day 28.
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
[n gurusz szitim] [n] gurusz 6(disz) geme2 ugula ba-zi munu4# al-nag4-ga2-de3 gub-[ba] [gurum2] ak [giri3 iszkur]-illat szabra [u3 puzur4-]nin-kar-[ke3] dub#-sar sza3 gar-sza-an-na iti ezem-szul-gi mu szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 na-ru2-a-mah en-lil2 [nin-lil2-ra mu-ne-du3] [u4] 2(u) 8(disz)-[kam]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0067. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y1 — Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: CUNES 48-07-017 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322745). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.