Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 173
About this tablet
An administrative account from the very dawn of writing — the Uruk period, late fourth millennium BCE, when script recorded goods rather than speech. A bookkeeper tallied mixed commodities: thirty sheep, a carp, jars, apples, and other goods whose signs are still undeciphered, closing with a note that the goods were disbursed or consumed. Its origin is unknown, and several of its picture-signs (the 'ZATU' entries) have never been securely identified, making tablets like this raw evidence for how writing itself began as accounting.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a warehouse ledger, most of whose opening lines are lost. What survives reads roughly: a few units of some unidentified commodity booked under a designation; thirty sheep; one carp; one large-measure unit; one jar of a specific type; eight items marked as handled or received; one or two entries of goods we can no longer identify; then, after another gap, four-and-a-fraction measures of apples, two units of another fruit or container, and two storage vessels. The closing docket notes something like: oil deposited, two more units, fresh stock — all consumed or paid out. The back of the tablet is blank or broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 4 (units), 2 (small units), 1 (fraction) — designation(?): ... (ZATU714×HI, undeciphered commodity sign) 30 (3 × N14) sheep 1 carp (SUHUR) 1 (N52 — a large-capacity numerical unit) 1 jar (of a marked vessel type) 8 ... (ŠU2 — received/disbursed(?)) [1 ... (ZATU644, undeciphered sign)] 2 ... (ZATU753, undeciphered sign) [...] , [...] 4 (units) [and 1 fraction] apples (HAŠHUR) 2 ... (MA — fig(?)/container(?)) of ... (ZATU735, undeciphered) 2 ... (GA2-type container with inscribed sign) (subscript:) oil(?) deposited(?); 2 (N57) ...; new ...; [consumed/disbursed] (reverse: uninscribed / broken)
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
[...] , [...] [...] , [...] 4(N01) 2(N39~a) 1(N24) , MU |ZATU714xHI@g~a| 3(N14) , UDU~a 1(N01) , SUHUR 1(N52) 1(N01) , |DUG~cx1(N57)| 8(N01)# , [SZU2] [1(N01) , ZATU644~a] 2(N01) , ZATU753 [...] , [...] 4(N01) [1(N08)] , HASZHUR 2(N01) , MA ZATU735~b 2(N01)# , |GA2~a1xX| NI~a RU 2(N57) SU~a GIBIL [GU7]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 173. 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 (P325064) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-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.