Position in chronology
CUSAS 31, 166
About this tablet
This is an accounting tablet from the Uruk period in southern Iraq (about 3300–3000 BCE), written in proto-cuneiform, the earliest form of writing. The front lists small counts, mostly between 2 and 5, and next to each count are signs that probably name people, offices or goods. One of them is the SANGA, an early administrator, perhaps of a temple. The back gives larger totals, and a large triangular sign appears there alone, as if it labels the whole account. Nobody knows where the tablet was found, and it is in a private collection. Many of its signs still have no agreed meaning, so we can follow the bookkeeping but not tell what was being counted.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a running count. On the front: 2 for an entry that mentions SZUM and PA, 2 for the SANGA administrator, 3 for GA, then an entry with 1 whose label is lost, and an entry lost completely. The second column lists 5 for DU and TE, 3 for KAB, 3 and then 2 for entries marked with the triangle sign, and 3 for SUG5. Two more entries at the bottom of the column are broken off. On the back, one total (14 or more) is partly lost. It is followed by a total of 30 marked DUR, and the triangle sign stands alone at the bottom, probably as a heading or label for the account.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse, column i 1. 2 (units): SZUM, PA, U4(?), E, ZATU659 2. 2 (units): SANGA official, |ZATU737×DI| 3. 3 (units): GA 4. 1 (unit) [...]: [...] 5. [...]: [...] Obverse, column ii 6. 5 (units): DU(?), TE 7. 3 (units): KAB(?) [...] 8. 3 (units): ZATU659, [one unidentified sign] 9. 2 (units): ZATU659 10. 3 (units): SUG5, [one unidentified sign] 11. [...]: [...] 12. [...]: [...] Reverse 13. 1 ten, 4 (units) [...] [one unidentified sign] [...] 14. 2 tens, 10 (units): DUR 15. (blank before the sign) ZATU659
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
2(N01) , SZUM PA~a U4#? E~a ZATU659 2(N01) , SANGA~a |ZATU737xDI| 3(N01) , GA~a 1(N01)# [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 5(N01) , DU#? TE 3(N01) , KAB#? [...] 3(N01) , ZATU659 X 2(N01) , ZATU659 3(N01) , SUG5 X [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N14)# 4(N01)# [...] X [...] 2(N14) 10(N01) , DUR~b , ZATU659
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 31, 166. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: private: anonymous, unlocated (P386388) — 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.