Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0540
About this tablet
This is an Ur III administrative account from Garšana, one of the many bookkeeping tablets kept by the sprawling institutional estate whose archive is now scattered across Cornell University's collections. It tallies workmen — some called 'experts,' others a lesser or junior grade — and converts their labor allotments into precise amounts of silver, part of which is recorded as a debt charged against a man named Lu-Haya. The whole entry is filed under an account for mun-gazi, a mustard or pungent-herb condiment, tied to the gardeners of a place called Apisal, and dated by the well-known year-name commemorating the selection of the high priestess of Inanna by omen-reading — Amar-Suena's second regnal year. It is a small, ordinary fragment of the vast Ur III bureaucratic record-keeping that tracked labor, wages, and produce down to the last grain of silver.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records payroll accounting: 23 skilled workmen and 'du'a-ku' laborers were paid at a rate of 2 shekels 3 grains of silver each, while a smaller, separate group of junior or lower-grade workmen received only 1/6 shekel 3 grains each. Adding these up, the total silver value came to 10 1/2 shekels 12 grains. Out of that total, a portion — 1/2 shekel and 10 1/2 grains — was instead booked as an outstanding debt owed by a man named Lu-Haya. The whole record is filed as part of the account for mustard (mun-gazi) tied to the gardeners of Apisal, and the tablet is dated to the year the high priestess of Inanna was chosen by omen — Amar-Suena's second year. The text breaks off after this and nothing further survives.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine23 workmen: (of the categories) 'ummia' (expert/craftsman) and du'a-ku workers, at 2 shekels 3 grains of silver each — [n] workmen, (of the) 'green/junior' (SIG7-a) category, at 1/6 shekel 3 grains of silver each — its silver: 10 1/2 shekels 12 grains. From within it: [n] 1/2 shekel 10 1/2 grains of silver was placed as a debt against Lu-Haya. Account of the mun-gazi (mustard/condiment), (concerning) the gardeners of Apisal. Year: 'the high priestess of Inanna was chosen by extispicy' (Amar-Suena Year 2). [...] (text breaks off)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
2(u) 3(disz) gurusz um-mi-a u3 du3-a-ku5 [2(disz)?] gin2# 3(disz) sze ku3-babbar-ta [n] gurusz SIG7-a [igi] 6(disz)?-gal2 3(disz) sze ku3-babbar-ta [ku3]-bi 1(u) 1/2(disz) gin2 1(u) 2(disz) [sze] [sza3]-bi-ta [n] 1/2(disz) gin2 1(u) 1/2(disz) sze ku3-babbar ugu2 lu2-ha-ia3 ba-a-gar nig2-ka9-ak mun-gazi nu-kiri6 a-pi4-sal4-ke4-ne mu en inanna masz2-e i3-pa3 [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0540. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CUNES 49-04-001 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P323344). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-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.