Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 034
About this tablet
This is a small clay tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), among the very earliest writing anywhere in the world — a form of accounting notation rather than connected prose. Each line pairs the number "1" (occasionally "3") with a sign or short sign-group that seems to denote a commodity, title, or category (a 'lord,' an 'administrator,' 'beer,' an 'image'), followed by a summary total at the end. Because proto-cuneiform of this stage is not a full writing system for spoken language, we can identify the individual signs but cannot always reconstruct the grammar linking them — this looks like an inventory or ration/offering list tallied item by item, sealed on the reverse by an official.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records a short list of single-unit entries, each marked '1' (one line has '3'), followed by a sign or short combination of signs — some resembling titles like 'lord' or 'administrator,' others naming goods such as beer, and one possibly an 'image' or figurine. One entry is completely broken away. The list ends with a summary count combining a higher-value unit with three ordinary units, labeled with the term KISZ-UB, apparently the tally for the whole set. The back of the tablet has no writing preserved in this transcription — instead it carries the impression of an official's cylinder seal and a separate star-shaped mark, suggesting the document was checked or authorized by a sealing official rather than carrying further text.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse: 1. 3 (units): DU ("brought/delivered") 2. 1 (unit): [sign broken/illegible] 3. 1 (unit): UMUN2 (a lord/ruler-title) 4. 1 (unit): UR2-A 5. 1 (unit): HAL ZATU694 6. 1 (unit): SAR-A 7. 1 (unit): ALAN ZATU694 ("image/figure" — ZATU694) 8. [1 (unit)]: [...] (broken) 9. 1 (unit): [x]-SZU 10. 1 (unit): EN ("lord") — KASZ ("beer") 11. 1 (unit): SANGA ("administrator") — HI 12. Total: 1(N14) + 3(N01) [a combined higher-value count]: KISZ-UB (Reverse: no inscribed sign-entries preserved in the transliteration; the reverse of the tablet bears a cylinder-seal impression and a separate star-shaped sign.)
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(N01) , DU# 1(N01) , X 1(N01) , UMUN2 1(N01) , UR2 A 1(N01) , HAL ZATU694~c 1(N01) , SAR~d A 1(N01) , ALAN~a ZATU694~c [1(N01)] , [...] 1(N01) , X SZU 1(N01) , EN~a KASZ~c 1(N01) , SANGA~a HI 1(N14) 3(N01) , KISZ UB
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 034. 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 (P325349) — 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.