Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 090
About this tablet
A small clay accounting tablet from the Uruk period (roughly 3300–3000 BCE), among the very oldest written documents known. It records measured quantities of barley and a beer allocation tied to an institution and to Uruk, with a day-count notation, and closes with the sign for consumption or ration disbursement. Written before writing could record grammar, it is a bare ledger of numbers and commodity signs — the kind of note a storehouse official kept to track what went out and to whom.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The ledger lists grain and goods issued: two large measures of barley against the entry marked AN–NUNUZ–ZATU788, three small measures of barley connected with Uruk and marked "mixed," and three measures of beer for the stall or institution. A day-count of two is noted, followed by a case whose sign is now unreadable. The second section repeats the pattern with different amounts — two units for the AN–NUNUZ–ZATU788 entry, three for the Uruk item, and two more against a one-day notation for the institution — and closes with one measure booked as consumed.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 2(N14) barley — AN, NUNUZ ("egg/spawn"), ZATU788 3(N01) barley — TA(?), Uruk, HI ("mixed") 3(N04) — AB (cattle-stall/institution), beer 1(N41) 1(N28) — |U₄ × 2(N01)| (day-sign enclosing 2) [...] (one case with an illegible sign) Reverse / second section 2(N19) — AN, NUNUZ, ZATU788 3(N04)[?] — TA(?), Uruk, HI ("mixed") 2(N41) — |U₄ × 1(N01)| (day-sign enclosing 1), AB (cattle-stall/institution) 1(N04) — consumed / disbursed as rations.
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
2(N14) , SZE~a AN NUNUZ~a1 ZATU788 3(N01) , SZE~a TA~c UNUG~a HI 3(N04) , AB~a KASZ~b 1(N41)# 1(N28) , |U4x2(N01)| , X 2(N19) , AN NUNUZ~a1 ZATU788 3(N04)# , TA~c UNUG~a HI 2(N41) , |U4x1(N01)| AB~a , 1(N04) GU7
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 090. 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 (P325061) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-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.