Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 019
About this tablet
A proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), probably from southern Mesopotamia, recording a list of single counted items — persons, commodities, or categories of goods — each assigned a value of 1 unit, with a summary total at the bottom. The final line tallies 1 large unit plus 4 single units in connection with reeds, a storehouse, and what may be a delivery or disbursement action. Tablets of this type are among the very earliest written records in human history, created by temple administrators to track institutional resources before writing had developed into a fully grammatical system. Its significance lies in its age: this is accounting, not literature, and it shows writing being invented precisely to manage economic complexity.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A list of items, each counted as one unit: a category marked AN with NU11; another with MU; one associated with an elder or ancestor category and a ME designation; one involving a BU-type compound with NA2 and ME; one with LAGAB and BU; one labeled AL; one identified by the sign ZATU725; several entries too damaged to read; one connected to a weapon or implement (SZITA); one involving a woman, a container or storage category (GA2), and reeds; one under the responsibility of a temple administrator (sanga); and one involving a peg or nail with wood. The rest is broken. The closing total line reads: 1 large unit and 4 single units — reeds, storehouse, [NU11-type], NUN-institution, delivery(?), water(?).
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 unit, AN NU11 [1 unit], X MU 1 unit, X PAP~a ME~a 1 unit, |(BU~a&BU~a).NA2~a| SHA ME~a 1 unit, LAGAB~b X BU~a 1 unit, AL 1 unit, ZATU725 [1 unit], [...] 1 unit, [...] SZITA~a1 1 unit, [...] 1 unit, woman GA2~a1 GI 1 unit, sanga [...] 1 unit, nail/peg GISZ [...], [...] 1 (large unit) 4 units, reed(s) storehouse NU11@t NUN~a DU A
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(N01)# , AN# NU11# [1(N01)] , X MU 1(N01) , X PAP~a# ME~a# 1(N01) , |(BU~a&BU~a).NA2~a| SZA# ME~a 1(N01) , LAGAB~b# X BU~a 1(N01) , AL 1(N01) , ZATU725 [1(N01)] , [...] 1(N01)# , [...] SZITA~a1# 1(N01) , [...] 1(N01) , SAL# GA2~a1# GI 1(N01) , SANGA~a# [...] 1(N01) , KAK~a GISZ [...] , [...] 1(N14) 4(N01) , GI# E2~a NU11@t NUN~a DU A
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 019. 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 (P325450) — 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.