Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 0212
About this tablet
This is a labor-account tablet from Garšana, an Ur III administrative center (c. 2100–2000 BCE) known for its extensive construction and agricultural bookkeeping. It records teams of male (gurusz) and female (geme2) workers grouped under named overseers, tallies their totals, and closes the account as a formally booked expenditure, verified through an inspection conducted by two named officials. Texts like this one let historians reconstruct the scale of state-organized labor and the bureaucratic chain of command that ran even a modest work crew in Bronze Age Mesopotamia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The top of this tablet is broken away. What survives is a roster of work crews: one gang of at least six men under the foreman Beli-ili, who is identified as a servant of Eameš; a larger crew of 23 men and 14 women under foreman Bazi; 13 men and 11 women under foreman Mea; and 3 men and 3 women under foreman Zala. More entries are lost in a gap. The totals give 10 workers (evidently builders), 53 men, and 28 women overall. The account is formally closed as an expenditure, and the record notes that the tally was checked through the officials Iškur-illat and Puzur-Ninkar.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] [...] [n+]6 workers (gurusz), overseer: Beli-ili, servant of Eameš. 23 workers, 14 female workers (geme2), overseer: Bazi. 13 workers, 11 female workers, overseer: Mea. 3 workers, 3 female workers, overseer: Zala. [...] Total: 10 [workers, masons/builders (šitim)]. Total: 53 [workers]. Total: 28 [female workers]. It is a booked expenditure (zi-ga-am3). [Inspection carried out], via Iškur-illat and Puzur-Ninkar.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
[...] [...] [n] 6(disz) gurusz ugula be-li2-i3-[li2] ARAD2 e2-A-me-esz2 2(u) 3(disz) gurusz 1(u) 4(disz) geme2 ugula ba-zi 1(u) 3(disz) gurusz 1(u) 1(disz) geme2 ugula me-e2-[a] 3(disz) gurusz 3(disz) geme2 ugula za-la-[a] [...] szunigin 1(u) [gurusz szitim] szunigin 5(u) 3(disz) [gurusz] szunigin 2(u) 8(disz) [geme2] zi-ga-am3 [gurum2 ak] giri3# iszkur-illat# [u3] puzur4#-nin-[kar-ke3]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 0212. 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).
Attribution
Image: CUNES 48-06-107 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322662). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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