Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 176
About this tablet
This is a small clay tablet from the Uruk period (roughly the later 4th millennium BCE), one of the very earliest forms of writing, recording quantities of barley through an administrative bookkeeping system rather than through connected sentences. It tallies grain that was disbursed and apparently exchanged or purchased — with one line even referencing fish and a storage courtyard — using proto-cuneiform numeral signs (circles and wedges impressed with a stylus) rather than the syllabic writing that came later. Tablets like this are the earliest surviving evidence of organized economic accounting, likely kept by a temple or institutional household tracking grain rations, purchases, or storage.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is a bookkeeping record, not a story or letter. It logs several batches of barley: one entry of 6 units tied to a place or category called UR2; a note that some amount was 'purchased' and then 'disbursed' (handed out); a larger entry of barley (recorded with the numbers 4, 1, 2, and 3 in different counting systems) that was disbursed and used to purchase fish, apparently at or from a courtyard or storage yard; another quantity of barley (4, 1, and 3 units in different systems); a further numeric entry (1 and 9 units); and a final tally of 3 and 3 units linked to a sign combination read as LAGAB-TE, whose exact meaning — a place, a category, or an official term — is not fully understood. In short: an ancient grain account, tracking how much barley came in, went out, and was traded, using a very early number-and-symbol system rather than full writing.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Column 1) 6(N14) — barley — UR2 (blank/case division) — purchase — disbursed (Column 2) 4(N34) 1(N36) 2(N45) 3(N14) — barley, disbursed; purchase of fish; (in) the courtyard/storage-yard (KISAL) (Column 3) 4(N34) 1(N45) 3(N01) — barley 1(N36) 9(N19) (Final entry) 3(N19) 3(N04) — LAGAB.TE (compound 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
6(N14)# , SZE~a# UR2# , SZAM2# BA 4(N34) 1(N36) 2(N45) 3(N14) , SZE~a BA# SZAM2 KU6 KISAL~b1 4(N34) 1(N45) 3(N01) , SZE~a 1(N36) 9(N19) 3(N19)# 3(N04) , |LAGAB~b.TE|
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 176. 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 (P257532) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-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.