Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 068
About this tablet
A small lenticular clay tablet from the Uruk period, roughly 3200–3000 BCE, placing it among the earliest written records in human history. It appears to be an institutional livestock account, tracking sheep and ibex across multiple categories — distinguishing female animals, pen assignments, quality grades (specifically 'replacement-grade' animals), grain or fodder allotments, and the action of a named overseer. Documents like this one are the administrative skeleton of the world's first cities: a temple official using pressed clay to record animal stocks across several sub-categories in a single session. Much of the precise meaning cannot be recovered because proto-cuneiform syntax — the relationships between signs within a case — remains only partially understood, and two archaic ZATU signs on this tablet have no established reading.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The opening of the tablet is broken. What survives records a group of female animals — probably ewes or female ibex — associated with a pen or enclosure and given a quality marking, counted in two numerical units. There is a brief entry for a record or tally document itself, and a separate weighed or balanced entry of replacement-grade stock. One line links a grain or flour allocation to a storage bin and an ibex. A longer combined entry then tallies ibex and sheep as replacements, counted by head, noting their location (interior, base), their mixed classification, and the action performed by an overseer. A parallel entry gives seven units of the same ibex-and-sheep combination in the same container category. The final line is entirely lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineLine 1: [...] AN [ZATU788] — female(s) — egg(s)/offspring Line 2: 2(N34) 3(N14) — female(s) — pen/enclosure — [quality marker ME] Line 3: 1(N34) — record/tablet [DUB] Line 4: 1(N14) — weighed/balanced — replacement-grade Line 5: 1(N01) — grain/flour — storage bin — ibex — [ZATU682] Line 6: [...] 2(N01) — [...] Line 7: [IB-container?] — ibex — sheep — replacement-grade — head/person — interior — base — mixed — adjacent — overseer — performed/made Line 8: [...] 7(N34) — ibex — sheep — [IB-container?] — replacement-grade — head/person Line 9: [...] [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Engine notes
read from photo12 uncertain terms ↓
- ZATU788 — Rare or poorly attested proto-cuneiform sign; identity and reading uncertain. Damaged in the photo and cannot be confirmed visually.
- NUNUZ~a1 — Proto-cuneiform sign typically read as 'egg' or 'roe/spawn'; possibly a commodity classifier. Exact semantic value in this administrative context unclear.
- ME~a — Proto-cuneiform sign with many possible readings; in Uruk administrative texts may denote a category of goods, duties, or a divine/institutional concept. Reading uncertain at this early stage.
- SUG5 — Sign of uncertain reading and value in proto-cuneiform; possibly a quality or status designation (e.g., 'ordinary/standard grade').
- ZATU682 — Rare proto-cuneiform sign; semantic value unknown. Cannot be confirmed from photo.
- IB~c — Proto-cuneiform sign; reading and administrative function unclear. May be a container, category, or classifier.
- DARA4~c2 — Generally read as 'ibex' or 'deer' (a bovid); the ~c2 variant indicates a specific sign form whose exact zoological or administrative referent may differ from the base reading.
- LA2 — In later Sumerian 'to weigh' or 'deficit/balance'; in proto-cuneiform context the precise administrative meaning is uncertain.
- HI~a — Sign of uncertain reading in proto-cuneiform; possibly a mixing or classification term.
- AK~a — Later Sumerian 'to do/make'; in this early administrative context may denote a processed product or completed transaction rather than the verbal sense.
- UR2 — Later Sumerian 'root', 'base', 'thigh', or 'lap'; administrative function at this early period is unclear.
- UB — Later Sumerian 'corner', 'nook', or a musical instrument; in proto-cuneiform administrative texts the precise value is uncertain.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows six faces of a small, pillow-shaped clay tablet typical of the Late Uruk period (c. 3200–3000 BCE). The obverse (large central face) is the most legible: ruled case-lines are visible, and I can make out groups of impressed numerical signs (round and elongated wedge impressions consistent with N01, N14, N34 classes) alongside incised pictographic signs. Several signs in the upper portion are heavily eroded or obscured by surface discolouration/damage, consistent with the '#' damage flags in the transliteration. The signs I can tentatively confirm visually include the repeated DARA4 (deer/ibex pictogram with branching horns), UDU (sheep head), and the columnar numerical groupings. Signs like ZATU788, ZATU682, and ME~a cannot be individually verified from the photo at this resolution — the surface erosion and reddish-brown concretion obscure fine wedge detail. The right-edge and left-edge faces show only a few signs each (consistent with continuation lines), and the top and bottom faces appear largely blank or very worn, with only faint impressions. The reverse (bottom large face) appears blank or too worn to read. The transliteration's heavy use of '#' (damaged sign flags) and '[...]' (breaks) is fully consistent with what the photograph shows. No significant discrepancies between photo and transliteration were detected, but the resolution and surface condition prevent positive sign-by-sign confirmation of the more complex or rare signs (ZATU788, ZATU682, IB~c, HI~a). This is a transliteration-dependent reading for most sign identifications.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 14, 2026 · 2328 in / 1396 out tokens
Transliteration
[...] , AN# ZATU788# SAL NUNUZ~a1 2(N34)# 3(N14)# , SAL# TUR3~a ME~a 1(N34) , DUB~d 1(N14) , LA2 SUG5 1(N01) , ZI~a UB DARA4~c2 ZATU682# [...] 2(N01) , IB~c DARA4~c2 UDU~a SUG5 SAG# SZA3~b UR2 HI# DA~a PA~a AK~a [...] 7(N34) , DARA4~c2 UDU~a IB~c SUG5 SAG [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 068. 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 (P325071) — 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.