Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 021
About this tablet
This is an archaic proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), one of the earliest forms of writing in human history. It records quantities of various commodities, animals, and institutional categories — including sheep, plow-teams, and what appear to be personnel or labor designations — likely produced by a temple or palace bureaucracy. The reverse bears a single large crescent-like incised mark, possibly a sign or owner's mark. Tablets like this are the world's first written records: not literature, but accountancy — the urgent practical need to track goods and workers that drove the invention of writing itself.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet tallies a range of goods and personnel: one large consignment linked to a place or institution called Adab; three units of an unidentified commodity; one unit each of a labor contingent (ERIN), a field category, and several plow-related entries under an EN official; twenty sheep; twenty units of another category (AN TE); and one female animal of a specific type. Several entries include signs whose exact meaning remains unclear. The final sign (ZATU851) on the reverse — and a crescent-shaped incised mark on the back of the tablet — cannot be fully interpreted with current knowledge. Much of the detail is lost to the archaic nature of the script itself rather than physical damage.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(N22) [large unit], ADAB 3(N01), [uncertain sign X] 1(N01), ERIN KAB 1(N01), GAN2 ISZ~b 2(N14) [= 2 tens], UDU~a [sheep] 3(N01), APIN~a EN~a [plow-team / EN official] 1(N01), SUG5# MAR~a ZATU752 1(N01), HI EN~a 1(N01), APIN~a GAN2 2(N14) [= 2 tens], AN TE 1(N01), SAL DARA4~a1 [female ibex / female animal] ZATU851
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(N22) , ADAB 3(N01) , X 1(N01) , ERIN KAB 1(N01) , GAN2 ISZ~b 2(N14) , UDU~a 3(N01) , APIN~a EN~a 1(N01) , SUG5# MAR~a ZATU752 1(N01) , HI EN~a 1(N01) , APIN~a GAN2 2(N14) , AN TE 1(N01) , SAL DARA4~a1 ZATU851
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 021. 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 (P006373) — 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.