Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 153
About this tablet
One of the world's oldest kinds of documents: a proto-cuneiform accounting tablet from the Uruk period (late fourth millennium BCE), before writing could yet record full sentences. An anonymous administrator tallied small quantities of goods — beer-bread cakes, containers, items connected with a cattle-pen — against officials such as a SANGA (chief accountant) and an EN (lord or priest-ruler). The surface is badly worn and several signs remain unidentified even to specialists, but the tablet is a direct witness to the bookkeeping revolution in which writing itself was invented.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a damaged inventory sheet. The opening entries are mostly lost; what survives records small counted lots: a measure of beer-bread, one more cake, and one unit of an unidentified commodity. After a gap the list resumes: one tablet belonging to the chief administrator; one container delivered by hand for the lord; one entry concerning the cattle-pen with five units; two items under the supervisor; two more marked with the divine/sky sign; and ten units of the same unidentified commodity. A three-sign notation — perhaps a classifying subscript or an official's mark — closes the account. The beginnings of most lines, and whatever transaction tied them together, are lost to damage.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(column/section as preserved) [...] — [...] [...] — NU11 [AN] [...] (and) 1 — AN, ŠA, UR2 [...] — [PA], "pure" A, [GIŠ3] 1 (N22-measure) — GUG2-cake (with) beer, BAR-category 1 GUG2-cake 1 — ZATU776 ... (unidentified commodity) [...] — [...] (Break) 1 — tablet (of) the SANGA-administrator 1 — GA2-container, ME, the EN (lord/priest-ruler), delivered by hand 1 — cattle-pen; 5 (N57-units) 2 — ME, DAR, PAP (supervisor) 2 — AN, NU11 [...] 10 — ZATU776 ... (unidentified commodity) (final entry/subscript:) A, HAL, AL
Our translation engine — Fable 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
[...] , [...] [...] , NU11# [AN] [...] 1(N01) , AN# SZA3~a1 UR2# [...] , [PA~a] KU3~a# A# [GISZ3~a] 1(N22) , GUG2 KASZ~a BAR 1(N01) GUG2 1(N01) , ZATU776 X [...] , [...] 1(N01) , DUB~a SANGA~a 1(N01) , GA2~a1 ME~a EN~a SZU DU 1(N01) , TUR3~a 5(N57) 2(N01)# ME~a DAR~b# PAP~a 2(N01) , AN# NU11# [...] 1(N14) , ZATU776 X A# HAL AL
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 153. 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 (P325192) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
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.