Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 139
About this tablet
This is a very early administrative accounting tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), one of the oldest types of written records in human history. It appears to record quantities of different commodities — possibly including grain-related goods and birds — under various categories or recipients. The signs are proto-cuneiform, the precursor to fully developed Sumerian writing, and the tablet is too fragmentary and the script too early for a fully confident reading of every entry. It is a vivid example of writing's origins not in literature or religion, but in the practical need to track goods in a complex urban economy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet records several commodity entries in a tally format. The first entry logs a quantity of roughly 21 units of something (possibly a grain product) received or handed over. The second entry notes about 20 units associated with 'SI' and water or a liquid marker. A further entry records 20 units of birds under a location or category marker 'UB.' The remaining lines are too damaged to read fully, with only scattered numerals surviving — including traces suggesting 6, 10, and 3 units of unidentified goods.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2(N34) 1(N14) 1(N01) , GUG2 [received/into hand] 2(N34) , SI A [...] , [...] 2(N14) , bird(s) [+] UB [...] , [...] [...] 6(N34)# [...] 1(N14) [...] 3(N01)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
2(N34) 1(N14) 1(N01) , GUG2 SZU 2(N34) , SI A [...] , [...] 2(N14) , MUSZEN UB [...] , [...] [...] 6(N34)# [...] 1(N14) [...] 3(N01)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 139. 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 (P325762) — 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.