Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 136
About this tablet
A heavily fragmented proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), one of the earliest phases of writing in human history. It records quantities of commodities or animals using the numerical notation system that preceded full cuneiform script, with at least one entry apparently noting a disbursement ('BA') associated with a sign that may denote a lion or fierce animal ('PIRIG'). Most lines are too broken to read. Tablets like this one were the bookkeeping tools of early Mesopotamian institutions — temples or large households tracking what was received, stored, or distributed — and they belong to the very moment when writing was being invented to manage economic complexity.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The surviving entries record several quantities in an early numerical notation — one count of some commodity followed by four units of another measure, then several lines too damaged to read. One legible line registers a total of two larger units plus one smaller unit, apparently related to a disbursement of something connected with the sign for a fierce animal or lion. A single unit of another item, labeled 'HI,' follows. The rest of the tablet is lost or illegible.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(N01) 4(N39~a), [...] [...], [...] [...], [...] [...], [...] 2(N42~a) 1(N25), PIRIG~b1 BA 1(N01), HI [...], [...]
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) 4(N39~a) , [...] [...] , [...] [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 2(N42~a) 1(N25) , PIRIG~b1# BA 1(N01) , HI [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 136. 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 (P325760) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-18/v5-modern-rendering).
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.