Position in chronology
CUSAS 35, 407
About this tablet
A small livestock ledger from the Umma region of southern Iraq, written some 4,500 years ago in the Early Dynastic period. A scribe lists ewes, rams and goats issued in ones and twos to a series of named individuals — a shepherd, a temple-connected person, men called A-zuzu, Ur-abzu, Amar-ki-ku, Dugani — and then notes that the animals were handed over to the kurušda, the professional fattener who raised stock for offerings and the table. The final line gives the running total: 22 sheep. It is exactly the kind of routine herd paperwork that fills early Mesopotamian archives, and a reminder that writing was invented largely to keep track of animals.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Sheep and goats issued, by recipient: two ewes to the uzug-person; two rams to Ki-de'ude'; two ewes and two rams to A-zuzu; one ewe and one ram to Ur-abzu; two ewes to Amar-ki-ku; two rams to Gu-ni-DU; one ewe and one ram to Nita the shepherd; one animal to En-sila-si; three nanny-goats to Dugani. A further entry covers sheep from the lane, twenty-nine head, dated to month 4, under Me-ane-du. All of it was handed over to the stock-fattener. Total: 22 sheep.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 ewes — uzug (cult-status personnel); 2 rams — Ki-de'ude'; 2 ewes, 2 rams — A-zuzu; 1 ewe, 1 ram — Ur-abzu; 2 ewes — Amar-ki-ku; 2 rams — Gu-ni-DU; 1 ewe, 1 ram — Nita, the shepherd; 1 LAK020(-animal) — En-sila-si; 3 nanny-goats — Dugani. Sheep from the lane(?): |LAK617×HI| — 30 less 1 (= 29); year(s), month 4(?) — Me-ane-du. Given to the fattener. 22 sheep (in total).
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
2(asz@c) u8 uzug 2(as@c) udu-nita ki-de5-de5 2(asz@c) u8 2(asz@c@90) udu-nita a-zu-zu 1(asz@c) u8 1(asz@c@90) udu-nita ur-abzu 2(asz@c) u8 amar-ki-ku3 2(asz@c) udu-nita gu-ni-DU 1(asz@c) u8 1(asz@c@90) udu-nita nita sipa 1(asz@c) LAK020 en-sila-si 3(asz@c) ud5 du11-ga-ni udu sila-ta |LAK617xHI| 3(u) la2 1(disz@t) mu iti 4(disz@t)#? me-an-ne2-du10# kuruszda szum2-ma 2(u) 2(disz@t) udu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC) ?) — CUSAS 35, 407. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P252810) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.