Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 016
About this tablet
This is a small proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), one of the earliest forms of writing ever produced. It records quantities of commodities — likely including date-palms or their products, plant goods, linen, and possibly female workers or rations — under a series of numerical notations using the archaic Sumerian number system. The final lines appear to be a summary or header formula, typical of Uruk-period accounting practice, naming responsible officials or categories. Such tablets were the bureaucratic backbone of the first urban civilization in southern Mesopotamia, tracking goods through temple or palace storehouses.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet records several disbursements or allocations of goods: a quantity logged under 'UR5' (possibly a commodity or personal name category); one unit of URI; three units of date-palm products and SI; further entries for plant goods and an unidentified commodity (ZATU759); one unit of linen; one unit allocated to a female worker or female category (BAR); then larger quantities — one large and three smaller units — of plant goods with a NAM designation; and a closing administrative formula involving ploughs (APIN), along with terms for an elder or supervisor (PAP), a fate/title marker (NAM2), a clay or tablet reference (IM), a seat or base (DUR2), and a field or storage term (SZAGAN). The rest of the lines are too damaged or abbreviated to read with confidence.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(N34), 1(N58) UR5~a 1(N57) , URI 3(N57) , date-palm [and] SI [...] , LA2 SUG5 [...] , plant(s) [...] , ZATU759 1(N57) , linen / GADA~a NA2~a 1(N57) , SZU2 female [worker] BAR 1(N34), 1(N58) 3(N57) , plant(s) NAM~a X , 3(N57) plant(s) 1(N57) , ZATU802~b [account:] SZU SZU APIN~a BU~a PAP~a NAM2 IM~a DUR2 SZAGAN
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(N34)# , 1(N58)# UR5~a 1(N57) , URI 3(N57) , GISZIMMAR~b1 GISZ# SI [...] , LA2# SUG5 [...] , U2~a [...] , ZATU759 1(N57) , GADA~a NA2~a 1(N57) , SZU2 SAL BAR 1(N34)# , 1(N58)# 3(N57) U2~a NAM~a X , 3(N57) U2~a 1(N57) , ZATU802~b SZU# SZU# APIN~a BU~a# PAP~a NAM2 IM~a DUR2 SZAGAN
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 016. 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 (P325231) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.