Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 131
About this tablet
This is a proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), one of the very earliest forms of writing in human history. It records allocations or inventories of commodities — likely including grain (ŠE), possibly silver or precious metal (KU3), and other goods — distributed to or associated with various institutions or individuals, including references to the city of Uruk (UNUG). The sign groupings are typical of early Mesopotamian accountancy: quantities followed by commodity categories and recipient or location markers. The tablet is too early and the sign meanings too poorly understood in their proto-cuneiform stage for a fully confident reading, but it is a genuine economic record from the dawn of literacy itself.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet lists a series of commodity allocations in several entries. A large quantity is recorded under the AB category with the ZATU714 sign; single units go to ZATU710 paired with other categories and possibly silver or precious metal; groups of three units are repeatedly associated with ZATU710 and the Uruk institution; there are entries for grain with a 'bringing' or 'delivery' notation, grain linked to the SUKKAL official, a field or land entry, and a final summary-like line recording a large grain quantity linked to consumption, mud/accounting, and two further sign categories. The middle section and several signs are too damaged or poorly understood to render fully.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(N05) 1(N42~a) — AB~a, ZATU714 1(N01) — ZATU710, PAP~a [and] UB ZI~a 1(N01) — SI, TUN3~a 2(N42~a) — ZATU710, UB ZI~a, KU3~a, AD~a 3(N42~a) — ZATU710, UNUG~b 3(N42~a) — ZATU710, UB ZI~a, UNUG~b 3(N42~a) — UB ZI~a, UNUG~b 1(N05) — UB ZI~a, ŠE~a, DU, A 1(N05) — UB ZI~a, I, SUKKAL 1(N05) 1(N42~a) 1(N25) — GAN2 IŠ~b 1(N42~a) — ZATU714 3(N14) — [damaged sign] 1(N05) — DAR~a, GU~a 2(N20) 4(N05) 3(N42~a) 1(N25) ŠE~a — GU7, MUD, NA~a, BU~a
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(N05) 1(N42~a) , AB~a ZATU714 1(N01)# , ZATU710 PAP~a# UB ZI~a 1(N01) , SI TUN3~a 2(N42~a)# , ZATU710 UB ZI~a# KU3~a AD~a 3(N42~a) , ZATU710 UNUG~b 3(N42~a) , ZATU710 UB ZI~a UNUG~b 3(N42~a) , UB ZI~a UNUG~b 1(N05) , UB ZI~a# SZE~a DU A 1(N05)# , UB# ZI~a# I SUKKAL 1(N05) 1(N42~a)# 1(N25) , GAN2 ISZ~b 1(N42~a) , ZATU714 3(N14) , X 1(N05) , DAR~a GU~a 2(N20)# 4(N05) 3(N42~a) 1(N25) SZE~a , GU7 MUD NA~a BU~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 131. 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 (P325360) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-18/v5-modern-rendering).
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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.