Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 1275
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III administrative tablet from Garšana, an estate/production center in southern Iraq that supplied labor and materials for the crown during the reign of Shu-Sin. It records quantities of grain measured in the standard gur/barig/ban2/sila3 capacity system, along with a note about poplar wood cut to a fixed length (2 cubits) and a count of dusu-baskets, a container type associated with earthwork and construction labor at Garšana. The tablet ends with a year-name referring to a stele erected for the gods Enlil and Ninlil, and is explicitly marked as a 'copy' (gaba-ri) — meaning this document duplicates another original record, a common bureaucratic practice in Ur III archives to preserve or cross-file accounts.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a copy of an accounting record. It lists two quantities of grain — one of 1 gur, 4 barig, 3 ban2, and another of 1 gur, 4 barig, an unclear number of ban2, plus 5 sila3 — though what commodity is being measured is lost in both cases. It also notes 15 items (cut) from poplar wood, each 2 cubits long, and 30 carrying-baskets (dusu) used for construction or earthwork. The month is not preserved, but the year is dated by the formula 'the year the great stele of Enlil and Ninlil was erected' — a year-name from the reign of King Shu-Sin of Ur. A note at the end marks this tablet as a copy of the original document.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 gur 4 barig 3 ban2 [... of ...], 1 gur 4 barig n ban2 5 sila3 [... of ...], 15 [...]-ka, poplar-wood, 2 cubits each, 30 dusu-baskets [...], month: [...], year: "The great stele of Enlil and Ninlil was erected," copy.
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(asz) 4(barig) 3(ban2) [... gur] 1(asz) 4(barig) n(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 [... gur] 1(u) 5(disz) x-ka# asal2 2(disz) kusz3-ta 3(u) dusu [(x)] iti [...] mu na#-[ru2-a-mah ]en#-lil2 nin-lil2-[ra] mu-ne-du3 gaba-ri
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 1275. 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 49-08-012 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P323437). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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