Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0806
About this tablet
This is a small administrative receipt from Garšana, one of the Ur III period's provincial estate archives (around 2100–2000 BCE) that meticulously tracked textile production and distribution. It records a batch of finished garments — several grades of nig-lam wraps, 'batab-duhhum' cloaks, headcloths, and plain weaver's textiles — handed over by a person named Aštaqarta to a recipient, Puzur-akum, who formally acknowledged receipt. Texts like this, by the thousands, let modern historians reconstruct the immense bureaucratic machinery behind the Ur III state's textile industry, one of the largest organized crafts of the ancient world.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is a receipt: a set of textiles — one first-quality nig-lam wrap, a 'batab-duhhum' cloak, a 'shagadu' version of that cloak, two headcloth versions of it, plus a lower-grade nig-lam and a tufted garment, along with eight 'weaver's-head' cloths and six ordinary weaver's cloths — was handed over by Aštaqarta and received by Puzur-akum. The transaction is dated to the month of the Mekigal festival, in a year identified by the formula about the installation of the high priestess of Inanna of Uruk (the end of this date is broken and has been restored from the standard formula).
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 nig-lam2 garment, 3rd-grade quality (us2); 1 batab-duhhum garment, 3rd-grade quality; 1 shagadu batab-duhhum garment, 3rd-grade quality; 2 sagšu batab-duhhum garments, 3rd-grade quality; 1 nig-lam2 garment, 4th-grade quality; 1 guzza (tufted) garment, 4th-grade quality; 8 sag-ušbar textiles; 6 ušbar textiles; from Aštaqarta; Puzur-akum received. Month: "Festival of Me-kigal"; Year: "the en-priestess of Inanna of Uruk [was chosen by the kid-omen]" [restored].
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)] tug2# nig2-lam2 3(disz)-[kam us2] 1(disz) tug2 ba-tab duh-hu-um 3(disz)-kam us2 1(disz) tug2 sza3-ga-du3 ba-tab duh-[hu]-um# 3(disz)-kam us2 2(disz) tug2 sagszu ba-tab duh-hu-um 3(disz)-kam us2 1(disz) tug2 nig2-lam2 4(disz)-kam us2 1(disz) tug2 guz-za 4(disz)-kam us2 8(disz) tug2 sag usz-bar 6(disz) tug2 usz-bar ki asz-ta2-qar-ta puzur4-a-ku-um szu ba-ti iti ezem-me-ki-gal2 mu en inanna unu-[ga masz2-e i3-pa3]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0806. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CUNES 49-04-002 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P323345). 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.