Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0973
About this tablet
An administrative receipt from Garšana, a private estate-town in southern Iraq, dated to the reign of Šu-Suen of Ur (around 2030 BCE). It records five animals — piglets, a goat, and two sheep — issued over a month from the official Iškur-illat's stock as regular offerings at the funerary libation place of Šu-Kabta, the general and physician who had owned the estate. The final word marks it as a filing duplicate. It shows how a dead estate-owner continued to be fed by his household after his death.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Over the course of the month, animals were issued for the regular offerings at the memorial cult-place of Šu-Kabta: a piglet on day 1, a fattened adult billy goat on day 10, another piglet on day 15, a fattened white long-fleeced sheep on day 20, and a fattened white sheep on day 28. All were charged against Iškur-illat's account, here at Garšana. Dated to the seventh month of the year Šu-Suen, king of Ur, built Šara's temple in Umma. This is a duplicate copy.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 piglet — month: day 1 having passed; 1 grain-fed full-grown billy goat — month: day 10 having passed; 1 piglet — month: day 15 having passed; 1 grain-fed white long-fleeced (alum) sheep — month: day 20 having passed; 1 grain-fed white sheep — month: day 28 having passed: regular offerings (for) the funerary libation-place (ki-a-nag) of Šu-[Kab]ta. From Iškur-illat booked out (expended). In Garšana. Month: ki-siki of Ninazu (month 7). Year: "Šu-Suen, king of Ur, built the temple of Šara in Umma." Copy.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(disz)# szah2-ze2-da iti u4 1(disz) ba-zal 1(disz)# masz2-gal niga iti u4 1(u) ba-zal 1(disz) szah2-ze2-da iti# u4 1(u) 5(disz) ba-zal 1(disz)# udu a-lum niga babbar iti u4 2(u) ba-zal 1(disz) udu niga babbar iti u4 2(u) 8(disz) ba-zal sa2-du11 ki-a-nag szu-[kab]-ta2 ki iszkur-illat-ta ba#-zi sza3 gar-sza-an-na iti ki-siki nin-a-zu mu szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 e2 szara2 umma-ka mu-du3 gaba-ri
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0973. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y1 — Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: CUNES 49-11-041 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P323727). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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