Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 1166
About this tablet
This is a small administrative receipt from Garšana, an Ur III-period estate town in southern Mesopotamia that supplied provisions to royal officials and workers. It records modest quantities of flour and dates issued for making a mash or porridge, overseen by an official named Ur-Ninsuanna, and dated by month and year-name to the reign of a Ur III king. The bottom lines are a seal caption identifying Šu-Kabta (called here 'physician,' though elsewhere in the Garšana archive he usually bears the military title 'general') and his subordinate, the cupbearer Ur-Suanna, who sealed the tablet on his behalf.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a short receipt: 3 ban2 of coarse flour, 2 ban2 of fine flour, some dates, and additional fine flour set aside for a mash or porridge preparation. Ur-Ninsuanna signed off on the transaction as the responsible official. It's dated to the month of the Ninazu festival, in the year 'the great barge was caulked.' Attached is a seal notice: Šu-Kabta — here titled 'physician,' son of Naram-ili — is named as the superior, and Ur-Suanna the cupbearer identifies himself as Šu-Kabta's servant, having sealed the document.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3 ban2 dabin-flour, 2 ban2 esza-flour, dates, esza-flour for hi-de3 (mash/porridge preparation) — Ur-Ninsuanna was the commissioner (maszkim). Month: "Festival of Ninazu," Year: "The great barge was caulked." [Seal:] Šu-Kabta, physician, son of Naram-ili; Ur-Suanna, cupbearer, is his 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
3(ban2) dabin 2(ban2) esza zu2-lum esza hi-de3 ur-nin-su4-an-na maszkim iti ezem-nin-a-zu mu ma2-gur8-mah ba-ab-du8 szu-kab-ta2 a-zu dumu na-ra-am-i3-li2 ur-su4-an-na sagi ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 1166. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CUNES 49-01-002 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P323223). 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.