Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 1183
About this tablet
A small accounting receipt from Garšana, a private estate in southern Iraq, dated to the reign of Šu-Suen of Ur (around 2035 BCE). It records two small birds that died on the 24th and 30th of the month and were written off from the stock of an official named Iškur-illat, the carcasses going to the sealed storehouse. The final word marks it as a duplicate of the original record — a glimpse of the meticulous bookkeeping that tracked even a couple of dead birds in the Ur III state.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One small bird died on the 24th, and another on the 30th. Both were sent to the storehouse. Šu-Suen-etel-pi-Enlil handled the transfer, and the birds were deducted from Iškur-illat's account. Dated the month of the Šulgi festival, in the year Šu-Suen, king of Ur, built Šara's temple at Umma. This is a copy of the original record.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 small bird, day 24; 1 small bird, day 30 — dead, for the storehouse (sealed storeroom). Conveyor: Šu-Suen-etel-pi-Enlil. Withdrawn from (the account of) Iškur-illat. Month: Festival of Šulgi. 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) muszen#-tur u4 2(u) 4(disz)-kam 1(disz) muszen#-tur u4 3(u)-kam ba-usz2 e2-kiszib3-ba-sze3 giri3 szu-suen-e-te-el4-pi4-en-lil2 ki iszkur-illat-ta ba-zi iti ezem-szul-gi 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, 1183. 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 48-06-019 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322608). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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