Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 034
About this tablet
A small, lens-shaped proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), recording individual units — almost certainly persons or institutional roles — each counted with a single tally mark, followed by a closing summary line of 13 against the heading KISZ UB. Each line pairs a numeral with a sign-group that likely identifies a person by title or function: lord (EN), temple administrator (SANGA), a statue or image (ALAN), and other less certain designations. The reverse shows only two or three isolated signs. This kind of roster — a named-individual count culminating in a total — is among the earliest administrative record-keeping in human history, predating fully readable writing by centuries.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet lists thirteen individuals, each counted one by one against their title or role: a delivery official (3 units), an UMUN2-title holder, someone in the UR2 A category, a HAL-division functionary paired with an unread sign, a SAR~d A official, someone identified by a statue or image sign, two further entries now damaged or illegible, a SZU-category person, a lord (EN) associated with beer rations, and a SANGA temple administrator with a mixed or qualifying note. The final line tallies the whole group: 13, under the heading KISZ UB — probably a granary-bin or storage sub-division. In plain terms: thirteen titled or functionally named individuals are being counted and assigned to a specific storage or administrative unit.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3 , DU[?] 1 , [X — unclear sign] 1 , UMUN2 1 , UR2 A 1 , HAL ZATU694~c 1 , SAR~d A 1 , ALAN~a ZATU694~c [1] , [broken] 1 , [X] SZU 1 , EN~a KASZ~c 1 , SANGA~a HI 13 , KISZ UB [total/summary line]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
3(N01) , DU# 1(N01) , X 1(N01) , UMUN2 1(N01) , UR2 A 1(N01) , HAL ZATU694~c 1(N01) , SAR~d A 1(N01) , ALAN~a ZATU694~c [1(N01)] , [...] 1(N01) , X SZU 1(N01) , EN~a KASZ~c 1(N01) , SANGA~a HI 1(N14) 3(N01) , KISZ UB
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 034. 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 (P325349) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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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.