Position in chronology
CUSAS 03, 1330
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III administrative voucher from Garšana, a provincial estate center in southern Iraq that supplied a nearby military and construction workforce. It records a disbursement of beer and bread rations, each portion measured at 2 sila3 (roughly 2 liters), issued under the responsibility of an official named Tahulam. The tablet closes with Tahulam's seal legend identifying him as a servant (subordinate official) of Šu-Kabta, the general who governed the Garšana estate — a detail that firmly anchors the text in the well-documented Garšana household archive of the Ur III period.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This receipt records an issue of beer and bread — two liters (2 sila3) of each — meant for beer supplies of [a broken entry]. Tahulam, acting as the responsible overseer, signed off on the transaction, and the goods were duly withdrawn from stores. The record is dated to the month of the Šulgi festival, in the year when 'the great magur-boat was caulked.' The tablet was sealed by Tahulam, who identifies himself as a servant of Šu-Kabta, the estate's governing official.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[n] beer (and) bread, at 2 sila3 each, for the beer of [...], Tahulam (was) the responsible official (maškim); it was withdrawn/expended. Month: "Festival of Šulgi." Year: "The great magur-boat was caulked." (Seal:) Tahulam, servant of Šu-Kabta.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
[n] kasz ninda 2(disz) sila3-ta kasz-[(x)]-sze3 ta-hu-lam maszkim ba-zi iti ezem-szul-[gi] mu ma2-gur8-mah ba-ab-du8 ta2-hu-la-[am] ARAD2 szu-kab-ta
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — CUSAS 03, 1330. 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 48-06-010 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322599). 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.