Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0474
About this tablet
A one-day labour account from Garšana, a private estate town in southern Iraq around 2030 BCE. Nine hired men worked a single day for six sila of barley apiece (roughly six litres each), under a foreman named Babani, in the eighth year of King Šu-Sin. The tablet was sealed by the scribe Ea-šar, who identifies himself as the servant of Šu-Kabta — the physician, high official and estate-holder whose household archive, together with that of his wife Simat-Ištaran, makes Garšana one of the best-documented private estates in Mesopotamian history.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Nine labourers, one day's work, paid at six sila of barley per man — wages for a hired crew, not for permanent estate staff. They were posted at Imsili, in connection with Munanum, and their foreman was Babani. The record is dated to the month u₅-bi₂-gu₇ in the year the great processional barge was built for Enlil and Ninlil. The document carries the seal of Ea-šar the scribe, who describes himself as the servant of Šu-Kabta, physician and son of Naram-ili.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine9 workmen for 1 day, barley: 6 sila each — hired. Stationed at Imsili, Munanum(?). Foreman: Babani. Month: u₅-bi₂-gu₇. Year: "The great barge for Enlil and Ninlil was fashioned." (Seal) Šu-Kabta, physician, son of Naram-ili, the sukkal (minister), the doorkeeper(?): Ea-šar, the scribe, (is) your servant.
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
9(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 sze 6(disz) sila3-ta ba-hun im-si-li gub#-ba mu-na-num2 ugula# ba-ba-ni iti u5-bi2-gu7 mu ma2-gur8-mah en-lil2 nin-lil2-ra mu-ne-dim2 szu-kab-ta2 a-zu dumu na-ra-am-i3-li2 sukkal i3-du8 e2-a-szar dub-sar ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0474. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y8 — The great barge for Enlil and Ninlil was fashioned based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: CUNES 48-02-018 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322420). 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.