Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 1156
About this tablet
A small receipt from the Garšana archive in southern Iraq, dated to the reign of Šu-Suen (c. 2030 BCE). It records that 15 units of some lost commodity were issued from the stock of an official named Ili-bilani. The tablet was sealed by the scribe Iškur-illat, whose seal proclaims him the servant of Šu-Kabta — the prominent figure whose household estate at Garšana generated this whole archive, here given the unusual title 'physician' rather than his more common 'general.'
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Fifteen units of goods — the item itself is broken off — were issued out of Ili-bilani's account. Dated to the month of Šeš-da-gu, in the year Šu-Suen, king of Ur, built the great barge. Stamped with the seal of the scribe Iškur-illat, son of Abia, who identifies himself as the servant of Šu-Kabta the physician, son of Naram-ili.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine15 [...] from Ili-bilani (it) was withdrawn. Month: "Piglet-eating" (Šeš-da-gu). Year: "Šu-Suen, king of Ur, [built] the great [barge ...]." (Seal:) Šu-Kabta, the physician, son of Naram-ili: Iškur-illat, the scribe, son of Abia, is your servant.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
1(u) 5(disz) [...] ki i3-li2-bi-[la]-ni-ta ba-zi# iti ses-da-gu7 mu szu-suen lugal uri5#[-ma]-ke4# ma2-gur8-[mah ...] szu-kab2-ta a-zu dumu na-ra-am-i3-li2 iszkur-illat dub-sar dumu a-bi2-a ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 1156. 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 48-04-010 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322524). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-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.