Position in chronology
BIN 08, 007
About this tablet
A small cushion-shaped account from Adab in southern Iraq, written around 2400 BCE. It distributes a workforce — nine men in all at the head of the list — among the city's sanctuaries: the Esar and Esahar temples, the gods Ašgi (Adab's own city god), Inanna and Enki, a few named individuals, eight minor shrines and the house of the sun-god Utu. The reverse records the term of service, seventeen days, and the place of work, the "chariot field." It is a plain piece of temple bookkeeping, and a snapshot of how many hands each shrine in a Sumerian city could claim.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Nine men are assigned as follows: to the Esar temple; four to Ašgi; four to the Esahar; two to Inanna; three to Enki; four to the Edam; one each to Dara-U-Enlil-gar, to [...]-esi, and to An-ne; eight to the small shrines; and to the temple of Utu. The work runs for seventeen days, at the chariot field. The rest of the tablet is left blank.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine9 (lit. 10 minus 1) men: the Esar (temple); 4: Ašgi; 4: the Esahar (temple); 2: Inanna; 3: Enki; 4: the Edam; 1: Dara-U-Enlil-gar; 1: [...]-esi; 1: An-ne; 8: the small shrines; the house of Utu. (reverse) 17 days (lit. 20 minus 3). The chariot field (GAN₂ gigir₂).
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
1(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) lu2 e2-sar 4(asz@c) asz8-gi4 4(asz@c) e2-sahar 2(asz@c) inanna 3(asz@c) en-ki 4(asz@c)# e2#-dam# 1(asz@c) dara3-U-en-lil2-gar 1(asz@c) x-e2-si 1(asz@c) an-ne2 8(asz@c) esz3 tur-tur e2 utu# u4 2(u@c) la2 3(asz@c) GAN2 gigir2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — BIN 08, 007. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Yale Babylonian Collection, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (P221536) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.