Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 1142
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III livestock accounting tablet from the estate archive at Garšana, near ancient Umma, dating to around 2042 BCE. It records sixteen sheep that died or were culled and were formally 'withdrawn' from the herd account under the responsibility of a herder named Ili-bilani. The tablet bears the seal caption of the scribe Iškur-illat, who names himself as servant of Šu-Kabta — a prominent administrator at Garšana usually known elsewhere by the military title 'general' but here called 'physician.' Garšana's archive, excavated from a private collection now at Cornell, is one of the richest sources for everyday Ur III estate management, tracking livestock, labor, and rations in minute bureaucratic detail.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Sixteen sheep died (or were culled) and were officially removed from the flock account that had been in the charge of Ili-bilani. The entry is dated to the month of the Mekigal festival, in the year the land of Zabšali was destroyed — that is, the seventh year of King Šu-Sin's reign. The document carries the seal of Iškur-illat, a scribe and son of Abi'a, who identifies himself as the servant of Šu-Kabta, son of Naram-ili, described here as a physician (though he appears elsewhere in this archive as a general).
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine16 sheep — slaughtered (deceased/culled) — from Ili-bilani — was withdrawn (booked out). Month: "Festival of Mekigal" (Garšana calendar). Year: "The land of Zabšali was destroyed" (Šu-Sin year 7). [Seal:] Šu-Kabta, physician, son of Naram-ili; Iškur-illat, scribe, son of Abi'a, is his servant.
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
1(u) 6(disz) udu ba-usz2 ki i3-li2-bi-la-ni-ta ba-zi iti ezem#-me-ki-gal2 mu ma-da za-ab-sza-li mu-hul szu-kab2-ta a-zu dumu na-ra-am-i3-li2 iszkur-illat dub-sar dumu a-bi2-a ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 1142. 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 48-02-008 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322410). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.