Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0971
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III administrative receipt from the estate at Garšana, recording the disbursement of a single grass-fed sheep for a funerary offering (ki-a-nag) made on behalf of two named individuals, Warad-Nanna and Alatum. It is dated by the month of Šulgi's festival and the year the land of Zabšali was destroyed — a year-name of king Šulgi, situating the tablet firmly in the late 21st century BCE. The tablet closes with a seal caption identifying its owner as the scribe Iškur-illat, son of Abi'a, who declares himself servant of Šu-Kabta, here titled 'physician' rather than his usual title of 'general' known from other Garšana texts — a small puzzle for specialists.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One sheep, fed on grass and not grain, was issued as a funerary offering for Warad-Nanna and Alatum. The animal came from the account of Ili-ašranni, and its withdrawal was logged in the month of the Šulgi festival, in the year when the land of Zabšali was destroyed. The tablet ends with a seal impression: it belonged to the scribe Iškur-illat, son of Abi'a, who identifies himself as the servant of Šu-Kabta, son of Naram-ili — here called 'physician,' though he is elsewhere known as a general at the Garšana estate.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 grass-fed sheep, for the funerary offering (ki-a-nag) of Warad-Nanna and Alatum, from Ili-ašranni, was disbursed. Month: "Festival of Šulgi." Year: "the land of Zabšali was destroyed." (Seal legend:) Šu-Kabta, physician, son of Naram-ili; Iškur-illat, scribe, son of Abi'a, is your 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) udu u2 ki-a-nag ARAD2-nanna u3 a-la-tum ki i3-li2-asz-ra-ni-ta ba-zi iti ezem-szul-gi mu ma-da za-ab-sza-li mu-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, 0971. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CUNES 48-02-005 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322407). 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.