Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0788
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III administrative receipt from the estate archive at Garšana, recording that about 1 2/3 mina (roughly 0.8 kg) of naga-plant bricks — cakes of alkali/soda-ash used for making soap or glass — were withdrawn from a man named Hani's account. It is dated by month and by a year-name referring to the installation of the high priestess of Inanna at Uruk, placing it in the reign of King Šu-Suen (Shu-Sin) of the Third Dynasty of Ur, around the early 21st century BCE. The tablet also carries the legend of the sealing scribe, Iškur-illat, son of Abia, who identifies himself as servant to Me-Ištaran, described as the king's beloved sister — a member of the royal family closely tied to the Garšana estate.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A record shows that 1 2/3 minas of alkali-plant bricks — cakes used for soap- or glass-making — were issued out from Hani's stock. The transaction is dated to the month of the Ninazu festival, in the year the high priestess of Inanna at Uruk was chosen by omen (a year of King Šu-Suen's reign). The tablet was sealed by the scribe Iškur-illat, son of Abia, who names himself as servant of Me-Ištaran, the king's beloved sister — likely the royal woman connected to the Garšana estate whose household this text comes from.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 2/3 mina — the weight of naga-plant bricks (alkali/soda-ash cakes) — from Hani, were disbursed (booked out). [Month]: 'Festival of Ninazu.' [Year]: 'The en-priestess of Inanna of Uruk was chosen by (goat-kid) extispicy.' (Seal inscription:) Šu-Suen, mighty king, king of Ur, king of the four quarters — Me-Ištaran, his beloved sister: Iškur-illat, son of Abia, is your servant, the scribe.
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
1(disz) 2/3(disz) ma-na ki-la2 sig4 naga ki ha-ni-ta ba-zi [iti] ezem-nin-a-zu [mu] en inanna unu-[ga] masz2#-e i3-pa3 szu-suen lugal kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba me-isztaran nin9 ki-ag2-ga2-ni iszkur-illat dumu a-bi2-a ARAD2-zu dub-sar
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0788. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CUNES 48-09-003 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322917). 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.