Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 049
About this tablet
This is one of the earliest types of written documents in human history — a proto-cuneiform livestock accounting tablet from the Uruk period of ancient Iraq, dating to roughly 3200–3000 BCE. It records quantities of sheep, rams, she-goats, and goats distributed or held under various institutional categories, using a numerical notation system that precedes the later Sumerian script. The signs at the bottom of the tablet appear to record a formal subtotal and a designation for animals processed or released under an overseer's authority. Tablets like this are among the very first experiments in writing, invented not for literature but for the practical management of temple herds.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is a livestock inventory. It records: 1 ewe, 3 rams (one of them allocated with a grain designation), and further entries that are partly broken. It then lists 45 goats, 9 ewes, 1 ram, 9 she-goats, 1 goat, and a reed-ration entry. A subtotal line counts 39 sheep against a grand-total marker of 1(N57). The closing lines record 13 animals in a 'processed/disbursed' category under an overseer's charge, and 29 animals counted to a pen or enclosure. The final lines are too damaged or technically complex to read with certainty.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(N01) ewe 3(N14) rams 1(N01) ram — for ŠE3 [fodder/grain allocation?] 1(N14) 1(N01) [commodity unclear] [...] 2(N01) [NUN~b category] 4(N14) 5(N01) goats 9(N01) ewes 1(N01) ram 9(N01) she-goats 1(N01) goat 1(N14) ŠU GI [reed ration / hand + reed?] 9(N01)# [...] 3(N14) 9(N01) — 1(N57) sheep [subtotal marker] 1(N34) 3(N14) — GURUSZDA~a |DU8~c × UDU~a| DA~a PA~a [finished/released sheep — overseer category] 2(N34) 9(N01) — LAGAB~b UDU~a [enclosure/pen sheep]
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) , U8 3(N14) , UDUNITA~a 1(N01) , UDUNITA~a SZE3 1(N14) 1(N01) , [...] 2(N01) , NUN~b 4(N14) 5(N01) , MASZ2 9(N01) , U8 1(N01) , UDUNITA~a 9(N01) , UD5~a 1(N01) , MASZ2 1(N14) , SZU GI 9(N01)# , [...] 3(N14) 9(N01) , 1(N57) UDU~a 1(N34) 3(N14) , GURUSZDA~a |DU8~cxUDU~a| DA~a PA~a 2(N34) 9(N01) , LAGAB~b UDU~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 049. 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 (P325357) — 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.