CUSAS 01, 036

~3100 BCE·Uruk Period·P325361

About this tablet

A small oval clay tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3200–3000 BCE), most likely an institutional accounting record tracking quantities of animals, workers or rations, and commodities such as salt and herbage. The tablet is divided into cases in the standard proto-cuneiform manner, with numerical notations in the sexagesimal and bisexagesimal systems paired with commodity or category signs. It probably originates from a temple or palace redistribution economy — the kind of bureaucratic record-keeping that represents the very earliest writing in human history. Though too fragmentary to reconstruct a single transaction in full, its entries suggest a mixed ledger covering livestock categories, salt rations, and possibly female workers or female animals.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

This tablet records several small batches of goods and animals: 2 portions marked as disbursements, 1 tablet entry, then a break. Further entries list 5 females (women or female animals), 1 inner/heart category, then groups of 2 and 2 sun/day-qualified calves, and 5 calves in another sun-qualified category. A larger entry — 28 in total — concerns a KIŠ-group of conscript workers or soldiers (ERIN). Two entries of 2 each record salt. A further 26 items are listed as fodder/herbage for calves. Another 2 portions of salt follow. Then 25 females, 1 highland/foreign item, and finally a round number of 10 sheep. The middle section of the tablet is too damaged to read.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Low confidence

2, BAR 1, tablet (DUB~b) [...], [...] 5, female (SAL) 1, heart/inner (ŠA3~a2) [2], |U4 × 3(N57)| 2, |U4 × 2(N57)| 5 AMAR, |U4 × 1(N57)| 1(N14) 8, KIŠ NAM2 ERIN 2, salt (MUN~a1) 1(N14) 6, |DU8~c × AMAR| grass/herbage (U2~a) 2, salt (MUN~a1) 1(N14) 5, female (SAL) 1, highland/foreign (KUR~a) 1(N14), sheep (UDU~a)

Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

Transliteration

2(N01) , BAR
1(N01) , DUB~b
[...] , [...]
5(N01) , SAL
1(N01) , SZA3~a2
[2(N01)] , |U4x3(N57)|
2(N01) , |U4x2(N57)|
5(N01) , AMAR |U4x1(N57)|
1(N14) 8(N01) , KISZ NAM2 ERIN
2(N01) , MUN~a1
1(N14) 6(N01) , |DU8~cxAMAR| U2~a
2(N01) , MUN~a1
1(N14) 5(N01) , SAL
1(N01) , KUR~a
1(N14) , UDU~a

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 036. 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 (P325361) — 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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