CUSAS 03, 1032

~2072 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P322597

About this tablet

This is a small Ur III-period livestock disbursement record from the estate at Garšana, an administrative center that supplied and managed labor, animals, and goods for the crown in southern Mesopotamia around 2000 BCE. One sheep is booked out of the herd of a man named Ili-bilani, on a particular day and under the authority of Šu-Kabta — a well-known figure at Garšana who oversaw the estate's operations. The tablet ends with the personal seal caption of the scribe Iškur-illat, identifying himself as the servant of the sealing authority. It is a routine bookkeeping entry, but one of thousands that let historians reconstruct daily life on a Sumerian royal estate.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

One sheep was taken out of the flock — recorded for [...]-Nergal — on the day associated with Elunum. It came from the holdings of Ili-bilani and was formally withdrawn from the account. This happened in the month of ki-siki-Ninazu, in the year Simurrum was destroyed (a Šulgi-era year name). The entry is tied to Šu-Kabta, possibly acting as physician or overseeing authority, and to a man named (A)zu, son of Naram-ili. The clay was sealed by the scribe Iškur-illat, son of Abi'a, who identifies himself as the servant of the sealing official.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

[1] sheep, for [...]-Nergal, on the day of Elunum, from Ili-bilani, was disbursed (ba-zi). Month: '[ki]-siki of Ninazu.' Year: 'Sim[urr]um was destroyed.' Šu-Kabta, the physician (?), son of Naram-ili. (Seal legend:) Iškur-illat, the scribe, son of Abi'a, is your servant.

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

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

[1(disz)] udu
[]ne3#-eri11-gal
u4 e-lu-num2-ma
ki i3-li2-bi-la-ni-ta
ba-zi
[iti ki]-siki# nin-a-zu
[mu si-mu-ru]-um [ba-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, 1032. 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). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y23 — Simurrum destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: CUNES 48-06-008 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Garšana (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P322597). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet (VAT 15211)

An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.

~2050 BCE

Umma Livestock and Personnel Account (AnOr 1, 243)

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.

~3300 BCE

AoF 30, 238,1