Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0588
About this tablet
This is a small textile disbursement record from Garšana, an Ur III-period administrative estate in southern Mesopotamia associated with the general Šu-Kabta and his wife, the princess Simat-Ištaran. It logs five garments — of specific qualities and one made of a particular wool grade — issued to a man named Lu-ba, apparently to be reinforced or finished, with the transaction dated by month and by a royal year-name referring to the erection of a great stele (commemorating Enlil and Ninlil, a formula associated with king Šu-Suen). The tablet closes with the impression of Lu-ba's personal seal, which identifies him as a physician (a-zu) in the service of Šu-Kabta — a small but vivid trace of an individual court physician's household economy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This record notes that five garments were handed over: one standard nig2-lam2 cloth, one tufted guz-za garment belonging to Šu-Kabta, one second-quality bar-dul5 garment also belonging to Šu-Kabta, and three woven garments made from a particular grade of wool. These were issued so that they could be reinforced or finished, coming from someone named La-ša-... (the rest of the name is broken off). A man named Lu-ba took delivery of them. The transaction is dated to the month of Akiti, in the year the great stele was erected. The tablet carries the impression of Lu-ba's own seal, which names him as a physician and servant of Šu-Kabta.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 nig2-lam2 garment, standard (quality), 1 guz-za (tufted) garment of Šu-Kabta, 1 bar-dul5 garment, second quality (us2), of Šu-Kabta, 3 usz-bar (woven) garments, wool of the gir2-gul (grade), in order to make (them) strong (kal-kal-ge2-de3), from La-ša-[...] (broken name) — Lu-ba received them. Month: Akiti. Year: 'The great stele was erected' (year-name). (Seal legend:) Šu-Kabta — the physician (a-zu) — Lu-ba is his servant.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 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(disz) tug2 nig2-lam2 du 1(disz) tug2 guz-za szu-kab#-ta 1(disz) tug2 bar-dul5 us2# szu-kab-ta 3(disz) tug2 usz-bar siki# gir2-gul# kal-kal-ge2-de3 ki la-sza?-[x]-ta lu-ba szu ba-an-ti iti a2-ki-ti mu na-ru2-a-mah mu-du3 szu-kab-ta a-zu lu-ba ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0588. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CUNES 48-02-025 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322427). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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.