Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 055
About this tablet
A proto-cuneiform accounting tablet from the Uruk period, around 3300–3000 BCE — among the oldest written documents in the world, older than any connected sentence in any language. An administrator is counting sheep: rams marked with the grain sign (probably grain-fattened animals or animals receiving a fodder ration), a large ram, and separate tallies of ewes and rams in archaic numerical notation. The two signs on the reverse may name the office, person, or destination responsible for the flock, but their meaning cannot be pinned down. It is bookkeeping from the very dawn of writing, when script recorded goods and quantities rather than speech.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a livestock ledger. It lists: three grain-fed rams under a date or day notation and the mark UR; one large grain-fed ram, tagged with the category-sign NAM2 and what may be a 'received' mark; then a tally of ewes (written 2×N15 + 2×N02 in the archaic counting system, likely around twenty-two head); and a tally of rams (2×N15 + 1×N02, likely around twenty-one). On the back, two signs — AN and MAR — probably identify the office, person, or account the animals belong to, though their exact sense is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse: 3 (N01) grain-fed(?) rams — U4 (day/date?) — UR; 1 (N01) grain-fed(?) ram, large — NAM2 — received(?) — MU; 2 (N15) 2 (N02) ewes; 2 (N15) 1 (N02) rams. Reverse: AN — MAR (sign group of undetermined function).
Our translation engine — Fable 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
3(N01)# SZE3 , UDUNITA~a U4 UR~a 1(N01) , SZE3# UDUNITA~a GAL~a NAM2 SZU MU 2(N15)# 2(N02) , U8 2(N15)# 1(N02) , UDUNITA~a AN# MAR~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 055. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P325756) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.