Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 1034
About this tablet
This is a small administrative disbursement record from Garšana, an Ur III-period estate in southern Mesopotamia known for provisioning royal building and canal projects around 2000 BCE. It tracks two rounds ('first instance,' 'second instance') of flour, beer, and dates issued for a ritual offering connected with a boat — likely tied to river transport, a canal-clearing operation, or a ceremonial launching, all common activities at Garšana. The bottom lines name the official from whose account the goods were withdrawn and the scribe who processed the transaction, the standard bookkeeping trail of the Ur III bureaucracy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This receipt logs small quantities of flour, beer, and dates issued in two rounds for a religious offering associated with a boat — jugs of ordinary dida-beer, portions of coarse and fine flour, and a handful of dates, plus some flour set aside in heaped piles for miscellaneous uses. A further note records specific quantities (2, 2, and a half unit, though these numbers are damaged) allotted for the boat offering itself. The goods were drawn from the account of Iškur-illat, and the transaction was handled — the closing lines are partly broken, but almost certainly read — 'via Puzur-Ninkar, the scribe,' the official who processed and recorded the disbursement.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[n] sila of esza-flour (fine flour), first installment: 1 jug of dida-beer, standard (du) quality, 2 sila of dabin-flour (coarse flour), 1 sila of esza-flour, 1/2 sila of dates; second installment: 3 sila of dabin-flour, 2 sila of esza-flour, 1 sila of dates; flour, heaped in piles, for various (uses). Offering for the boat: 2, 2(?), 1/2(?) [units]. [From] Iškur-illat [it was withdrawn/disbursed], via Puzur-Ninkar, [the scribe].
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] sila3 esza# a-ra2 1(disz)-[kam] 1(disz) dug dida du# 2(disz) sila3 dabin 1(disz) sila3 esza 1/2(disz) sila3 zu2-lum a-ra2 2(disz)-kam 3(disz) sila3 dabin 2(disz) sila3 esza 1(disz) sila3 zu2-lum zi3 dub-dub didli-sze3 siskur2 ma2 2(disz) 2(disz)? 1/2(disz)? [ki] iszkur-illat-[ta ba-zi] giri3# puzur4-[nin-kar-ke3 dub-sar]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 1034. 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 48-06-059 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322648). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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