Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 1095
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III administrative receipt from the estate archive at Garšana, recording the slaughter and disbursement of one sheep and one lamb, handled by the scribe Ea-šar and drawn from the account of a man named Ili-bilani. It is dated by a year-name referring to the destruction of the land of Zabšali, an event tied to the reign of King Šulgi. The tablet also carries a seal caption naming Šu-Kabta — a well-known administrator at Garšana, here titled 'physician' rather than his usual title of general — and his subordinate, the scribe Iškur-illat, son of Abi'a, who identifies himself as Šu-Kabta's servant. Thousands of such day-to-day livestock disbursement records survive from the Ur III bureaucratic state, and this one is notable for the unusual title given to Šu-Kabta.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One sheep and one lamb were slaughtered. The transaction was handled by the scribe Ea-šar, and the animals were charged out of the account of Ili-bilani. It happened in the month called 'ki-siki-Ninazu,' in the year that the land of Zabšali was destroyed. The document's seal identifies Šu-Kabta, described here as 'the physician,' son of Naram-ili, as the owner of authority, with the scribe Iškur-illat, son of Abi'a, sealing as his subordinate servant.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 sheep, 1 lamb, slaughtered. Via Ea-šar, the scribe; from Ili-bilani it was disbursed (booked out). Month: 'ki-siki-Ninazu'; year: 'the land of Zabšali was destroyed.' (Seal:) Šu-Kabta, the physician, son of Naram-ili; Iškur-illat, the 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.
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Transliteration
1(disz) udu 1(disz) sila4 ba-usz2 giri3 e2-a-szar dub-sar ki i3-li2-bi-la-ni-ta ba-zi iti ki-siki nin-a-zu 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, 1095. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CUNES 48-02-003 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322405). 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.