Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 1321
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III administrative voucher from the estate archive at Garšana, dating to around 2000 BCE. It records the withdrawal of 80 bundles of reeds (likely torches or kindling) used in the process of smoke-curing fish, an everyday task of the household economy overseen by named officials and a scribe. Tablets like this one, though modest, let historians reconstruct the logistics of food preservation and labor supervision on a large Ur III estate.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Eighty bundles of reeds were issued for smoking fish black (curing them over smoke). Šu-Erra acted as the responsible official (commissioner) for the transaction, which took place in the Umma district. The expenditure was charged to Šu-Dada's account and drawn from the holdings of Iškur-illat. The transaction is dated to the month of the Ninazu festival. It was recorded by Šu-Kabta, here called 'the physician,' and written down by the scribe Šu-Erra, who signs himself 'your servant.'
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(gesz2) 2(u) [=80] bundles of reed(-torches), for smoking fish black. Šu-Erra was the commissioner (maškim). Within Umma: booked expenditure (zi-ga) of Šu-Dada, from Iškur-illat it was withdrawn (ba-zi). Month: 'Festival of Ninazu.' Šu-Kabta, the physician(?); Šu-Erra, the scribe, 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(gesz2) 2(u) sa gi NE ku6 se-ge6-de3 szu-er3-ra maszkim sza3 umma zi-ga szu-da-da ki iszkur-illat-ta ba-zi iti ezem-nin-a-zu szu-kab-ta2? a-zu# szu-er3-ra# dub-sar ARAD2-[zu]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 1321. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CUNES 48-06-009 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322598). 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.