Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 092
About this tablet
A proto-cuneiform accounting tablet from the Uruk period, roughly 3200–3000 BCE — among the very earliest writing produced anywhere in the world. Each entry follows the standard ledger format of this era: a numerical quantity on one side of the cell divider, a commodity sign on the other. The surviving lines record quantities of barley (or cereal grain), a wood or timber item, and at least one further commodity whose label is lost. The tablet is fragmentary — broken at the top and bottom — but enough remains to show the characteristic bookkeeping structure of a large Mesopotamian institution, most likely a temple storehouse tracking incoming or outgoing goods.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The first legible entry records some kind of wood or timber product; the beginning of that line is lost. The next entry logs a substantial quantity of grain — 1(N19) 3(N14) 1(N01) in the standard capacity notation — associated with an enclosure or institutional heading (LAGAB·TE), followed by what appears to be horns or a horn-shaped commodity, a delivery notation, and a reddish or processed item. A smaller grain entry of 2(N14) 2(N01) follows. Then comes 1(N19) 5(N04) of an unidentified commodity whose label did not survive. The final line is entirely lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...]: [wood/timber product (GISZ3~a)] 1(N19) 3(N14) 1(N01): [LAGAB~b·TE], barley — horn(s)/SI, delivered, [SI4~f commodity] 2(N14) 2(N01): barley 1(N19) 5(N04): [commodity not preserved] [...]: [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , GISZ3~a 1(N19) 3(N14)# 1(N01) , |LAGAB~b.TE| SZE~a SI DU SI4~f 2(N14) 2(N01) , SZE~a 1(N19) 5(N04)# , [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 092. 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 (P325223) — 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.