Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0858
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III administrative receipt from the estate archive at Garšana, a provincial center under the Third Dynasty of Ur. It records twelve pairs of sandals issued as an obligatory allotment to soldiers, withdrawn from the account of a man named Ana-ah-ili, dated by month and by the year Zabšali was destroyed (one of King Šulgi's military-campaign year names). The closing lines name Šu-Kabta — a well-attested Garšana estate manager and military official — along with a scribe and another named individual who identify themselves as his servants, a routine authentication formula for this kind of internal supply document.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is a receipt for 12 pairs of sandals (a standard walking type) issued as a mandatory ration to soldiers. The sandals were charged out of the account of Ana-ah-ili. The transaction is dated to the month called 'Gazelle-feast,' in the year that the land of Zabšali was destroyed — a year-name from King Šulgi's reign. The document is addressed to the official Šu-Kabta, and closes with the names of Azu (son of Naram-ili) and the scribe Iškur-illat (son of Abiya), who identify themselves as his servants — the standard sign-off for this kind of internal estate paperwork.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine12 sandals, 'du'-type [broken sign, uncertain] — e2-ba-an(?), the nig2-dab5 (obligatory delivery/allotment) of the soldiers (aga3-us2-e-ne), from Ana-ah-ili it was withdrawn (disbursed). Month: 'Mašdagu' (the gazelle-feast month). Year: 'the land of Zabšali was destroyed' (a Šulgi year-name). [To] Šu-Kabta: Azu, son of Naram-ili; Iškur-illat, the scribe, son of Abiya — your servant(s).
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(u) 2(disz) [e]-sir2#? du e2-ba-an nig2-dab5 aga3-us2-e-ne ki a-na-ah-i3-li2-ta ba-zi iti masz-[da3]-gu7 mu ma-da# za-ab-sza-li ba#-hul# szu-kab2-ta a-zu dumu na-ra-am-i3-li2 iszkur-illat dub-sar dumu a-bi2-a ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0858. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CUNES 48-02-002 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322404). 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.