Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 1245
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III period livestock receipt from the estate archive at Garšana, a provincial administrative center that supplied labor and goods to the royal economy of the Ur III state. It records sheep — some grain-fed — transferred from a man named Iškur-illat and taken into the charge of Simu, a professional livestock-fattener who worked under the authority of Šu-Kabta, a well-known military governor and estate manager at Garšana. Such texts, though mundane, let historians reconstruct the detailed bureaucratic machinery — herding, fattening, and redistribution of animals — that sustained a Bronze Age palace economy roughly 4,000 years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is a receipt: eight grain-fed sheep and one more sheep (details lost) plus another sixteen animals or items (also lost to damage) were handed over by a man named Iškur-illat. Simu, who worked as an animal-fattener, took charge of them. The transaction was dated to the month called 'Harvest' in the year when the priestess En-amgalana was installed. A subtotal of 25 is given, and the record closes by identifying Simu again, this time as a subordinate of Šu-Kabta, the estate's overseer.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine8 sheep, grain-fed; 1 sheep [...]; 16 [x ...]; from Iškur-illat; Simu, the fattener, received (them). Month: "Harvest" (ix); Year: "En-amgalana was installed (as high priestess)" [Amar-Suen year 4]. 25 (total); Simu, the fattener, servant/subordinate of Šu-Kabta.
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
8(disz) udu niga 1(disz) udu [...] 1(u) 6(disz) x [...] ki [iszkur-illat]-ta# si#-mu kuruszda# i3-dab5 iti# sze-sag11#-ku5 mu# en-am#-gal-an#-na# ba#-[hun] 2(u) 5(disz) si-mu kuruszda ARAD2 szu-kab-ta2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 1245. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CUNES 48-02-023 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322425). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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Related sources
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.