Position in chronology
CUSAS 01, 109
About this tablet
A small clay tablet from the very dawn of writing — Mesopotamia around 3200 BCE, before anyone was writing sentences. It is a grain account: circular and wedge-shaped impressions record measured quantities of barley, each entry tagged with the sign for a storehouse and a mark indicating that the grain was paid out. Both faces are broken and several entries are lost, but the surviving structure is clear: quantities on the left, the receiving or disbursing institution on the right, with a total-like entry on the reverse. This is administrative bookkeeping so early that the signs do not yet spell out a language — they simply count things.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Grain issued from the storehouse. The readable entries record one large measure plus two smaller units charged to the storehouse account and marked as paid out; a second entry lists five units of one measure and two of another, again for the storehouse. Several further lines on the front are broken away. On the back, a summarizing entry records one large measure and six smaller units, again marked as disbursed from the storehouse. The rest of the tablet is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) […] , […] (one illegible sign) […] 1(N46), 1(N14), 1(N57) — the storehouse (E2~a); disbursed (BA) 5(N19), 2(N57) — the storehouse (E2~a) […] , […] […] , […] […] , […] (reverse) 1(N46), 6(N19) — disbursed (BA); the storehouse (E2~a)
Our translation engine — Opus 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
[...] , [...] X [...] 1(N46)# 1(N14) 1(N57) , E2~a BA 5(N19) 2(N57) , E2~a [...] , [...] [...] , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N46) 6(N19) , BA E2~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CUSAS 01, 109. 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: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P328729) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-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.