Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 172
About this tablet
A proto-cuneiform accounting tablet from the Uruk period (late 4th millennium BCE), among the very oldest written documents in existence — older than any connected sentence in any language. It is not prose but bookkeeping: four entries tally measured quantities of a processed commodity (written with the sign HI-gunû, perhaps a mixed or prepared grain product), assigned to the city of Uruk, to a work gang attached to a storehouse, and to other recipients now broken away, with a closing note marking the batch as 'new'. Tablets like this show writing at its birth: invented not for literature or religion, but to keep track of goods and labor.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a warehouse ledger with four entries for the same processed commodity. The first batch — a bit over five basic measures — is earmarked for Uruk. The second, smaller batch goes to the work crew of a storehouse called UR2. The third entry, another measure and change, went to a recipient whose name is now broken off. The fourth and largest allotment, over four measures, seems to have been handed over, perhaps as an advance or loan. A final note flags the account as a new issue, first quality, one further unit. The back of the tablet was left blank.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Obverse) 5(N01) 1(N24) — HI@g-product, (for/of) Uruk; 1(N01) 1(N24) 1(N16) — HI@g-product, (for) the labor troop of the storehouse UR2; 1(N01) 1(N24) 1(N28) 1(N30c) — HI@g-product, [...]; 4(N01) 3(N39a) 1(N24) — HI@g-product, received(?) (as a) loan(?); (Subscript:) new (delivery); 1(N04), first (quality). (Reverse: uninscribed.)
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
5(N01)# 1(N24) , HI@g~a UNUG~a 1(N01) 1(N24) 1(N16) , HI@g~a ERIN E2~a UR2 1(N01) 1(N24) 1(N28) 1(N30~c)# , HI@g~a# [...] 4(N01) 3(N39~a) 1(N24) , HI@g~a# SZU# UR5~a , GIBIL 1(N04) SAG#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 172. 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 (P283917) — 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.