Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 1317
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III administrative tablet from the estate archive at Garšana, recording a disbursement of beer and bread rations — seven portions of five sila3 each — apparently destined for or associated with Šimaški, a region to the east of Mesopotamia. The transaction is dated by the occasion 'the year the magur-boat was built,' and the tablet closes with a seal caption naming Šu-Kabta, a well-known administrator at Garšana (here called 'physician' rather than his usual title 'general'), and his subordinate Ur-Suʾana, a cupbearer, who identifies himself as Šu-Kabta's servant. Such texts are everyday bookkeeping from a large Ur III household economy, but 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
Seven portions of beer and bread, five liters each, were issued — the record connects them to Šimaški, though the next line naming a recipient is too damaged to read. The entry is dated to 'the year the magur-boat was built.' The tablet ends with a seal notice: Šu-Kabta, called here a physician and son of Naram-ili, is named as the superior, and Ur-Suʾana, a cupbearer, declares himself Šu-Kabta's servant.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine7 (units), beer (and) bread, 5 sila3 each, for Šimaški(?); ...(broken personal name/phrase)...; year: “the magur-boat was built” (occasion); Šu-Kabta, physician, son of Naram-ili; Ur-Suʾana, 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.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
7(disz) kasz ninda 5(disz) sila3-ta szimaszgi2#?-sze3 x-x-[x]-a-su-x? mu ma2-gur8 ba-du3 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, 1317. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CUNES 48-06-011 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322600). 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.