Position in chronology
CUSAS 31, 047
About this tablet
This is a small, broken account from the very beginning of writing in Mesopotamia, from the Uruk period (about 3200–3000 BCE). The scribe divided the clay surface into boxes, and each box holds a number next to a word sign. The signs include the plow, possibly a goat, and a combined sign built from 'lord' and 'prince' that may name an office or an institution. The back was left almost blank except for what seems to be a total and a label. We don't know where the tablet was found, and there are too few entries to say exactly what was being counted, but it shows early bookkeepers sorting goods or people into categories.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The first lines are lost except for a number: 10. The next entry lists 12 under a heading that seems to mean 'elder' or 'overseer', tied to an official or office written with the combined 'lord-prince' sign. An entry that mentions NA2 has lost its number. Next come 2 under 'plow' and 1 under what may be 'she-goat'. After another break, the back gives the total, 10, with the label KISZ, a term whose meaning here is unclear.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse [...] [...] 10 (N14) 10 (N14), 2 (N01): PAP~a? EN~a+NUN~b [...] NA2~b? 2 (N01): APIN~a (plow) 1 (N01): UD5~a (she-goat?) [...] Reverse 10 (N15) KISZ
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(N14)# 1(N14)# 2(N01) , PAP~a#? |EN~a+NUN~b| [...] NA2~b1#? 2(N01) , APIN~a 1(N01) , UD5~a [...] 1(N15) , KISZ#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 31, 047. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: private: anonymous, unlocated (P235781) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-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.