Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 015
About this tablet
This is a small clay accounting tablet from the archaic city of Uruk (roughly the later 4th millennium BCE), one of the earliest bureaucratic documents ever produced. It is a tally of quantities — probably rations, workers, or stored goods — organized in rows, each entry tied to an institution or facility called the 'gate' (KA2), likely a granary, storehouse, or administrative checkpoint. The tablet uses the earliest known writing system, combining numeral impressions (circles and wedges representing different counting systems) with a handful of pictographic signs for commodities and personnel categories. Much of its precise meaning remains undeciphered because many of the signs (marked ZATU) have no confirmed later equivalent.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This looks like a ledger page: a series of tallies, each recording a quantity of something — workers, goods, or measures — checked in or out at a facility called 'the gate,' probably a storehouse or administrative gatehouse. One line counts a group of workers assigned to the gate; another records something received there; a third notes an item delivered or in transit, marked with a sign we can't identify; further lines list quantities tied to a settlement and to signs whose meaning is now lost, all still referencing 'the gate.' Near the end, a line records units of a compound commodity marker (possibly involving 'silver' or a shining/pure quality), then a wood-related item, and finally a disbursement — goods (possibly oil) given out from the gate. Two consecutive lines are too damaged or too terse to read beyond '...of the gate.'
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine5(N34) 4(N14) units — workers (ERIM) — (of) the gate (KA2). 2(N14) 2(N01) units — (of) the gate — received/in hand (SZU). 2(N34) units — delivered/in transit (DU) — [sign: ZATU737×BUR]. 3(N34) units — settlement/city (URU) — [sign: ZATU659] — (of) the gate. 2(N34) units — [......] — (of) the gate. 3(N34) units — [......] — (of) the gate. 1(N51) 1(N14) units — [compound sign: 6(N57).KU3]. 1(N34) 2(N14) units — wood/GIŠ commodity — (of) the gate. (of) the gate. 1(N48) 9(N34) 2(N14) 2(N01) units — disbursed (BA) — oil/fat (NI) — (of) the gate.
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
5(N34) 4(N14) , ERIM~a KA2~a 2(N14) 2(N01) , KA2~a SZU 2(N34) , DU |ZATU737xBUR~a| 3(N34) , URU~a1# ZATU659 KA2~a 2(N34) , [...] KA2~a 3(N34) , [...] KA2~a 1(N51) 1(N14) , |6(N57).KU3~a| 1(N34) 2(N14) , GISZ3~a KA2~a KA2~a 1(N48) 9(N34) 2(N14) 2(N01) , BA NI~a KA2~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 015. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P325355) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. 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.