Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 193
About this tablet
A small, damaged accounting tablet from the Uruk period (about 3300–3000 BCE), written in proto-cuneiform, the earliest stage of writing, before a spoken language can be firmly tied to it. It seems to list small amounts of animals and fish, including a sheep and a carp-like fish, plus fractional amounts of other goods. The last line groups AB, SI4 and GU7 ('eat/consume'), which may be a note that the goods were used up or given out by an office or household. Where it was found is unknown, and much of it is lost, so we can only partly follow the account.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The record begins with one sheep, one carp and one of another kind of fish. The next entry is lost. Then comes a small fractional amount marked NE KI, followed by entries that are too damaged to read, and a note naming the AB office with a date-like 'day 1' sign. On the back, after a broken entry, there are small fractional amounts of an item we can't identify. The fraction marked NE KI appears again, along with another 'day 1' note for the AB office. The account ends with what looks like a closing note: goods of the AB office, perhaps marked 'red' or 'processed', that were eaten or given out.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 1. 1 (unit): sheep (UDU~a) 2. 1 (unit): SUHUR-fish (carp) 3. 1 (unit): [a fish-type] (|ZATU759xKU6~a|) 4. [...]: [...] 5. 1 (N26 fraction): NE~a KI 6. [...]: X X 7. [...]: [...] 8. AB~a |U4x1(N01)| [...] Reverse 1. [...]: [...] 2. [...] 1 (N24) 1 (N28): |ZATU714xHI@g~a| 3. 1 (N26 fraction): NE~a KI 4. |U4x1(N01)| AB~a 5. AB~a SI4~f GU7
Our translation engine — Opus 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
1(N01) , UDU~a 1(N01)# , SUHUR 1(N01)# , X |ZATU759xKU6~a| [...] , [...] 1(N26) , NE~a KI [...] , X X [...] , [...] AB~a |U4x1(N01)| [...] [...] , [...] [...] 1(N24) 1(N28) , |ZATU714xHI@g~a| 1(N26) , NE~a KI |U4x1(N01)|# AB~a AB~a SI4~f GU7
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 193. 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 (P326800) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.