Position in chronology
CUSAS 35, 150
About this tablet
A small Early Dynastic account tablet from Adab in southern Iraq, roughly the middle of the third millennium BCE. It records a single issue of grain and processed cereal products — barley, emmer, two grades of flour, groats, malt and beer-bread — set aside for a crew of boatmen working for an institution called the "House of the Children." An official named An-ne-šum is named as the person responsible, and the entry is dated to the month of sheep-plucking. Tablets like this are the ordinary bookkeeping of a temple or palace kitchen: everything needed to feed a work gang and to brew their beer, itemised and dated.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Provisions issued to the boat crew: 1 gur of barley, 1 gur of emmer, 2 barig of fine flour, 3 barig of coarse dabin-flour, 2 barig of groats, an unrecorded quantity of beer-bread, 2 barig of malt, and a further 3 barig of barley earmarked for brewing. An-ne-šum handled the transaction. The account is charged to the House of the Children, in the month of sheep-plucking.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 gur of barley, 1 gur of emmer, 2 barig of fine flour (zi₃-sig₁₅), 3 barig of dabin-flour, 2 barig of groats (niĝ₂-ar₃-ra), [n] (measures of) beer-bread (bappir), 2 barig of malt, 3 barig of barley — it is for beer: (these are) of the boatmen. An-ne-šum (disbursed/received it). It belongs to the House of the Children (e₂-dumu). Month: ĝa₂-udu-ur₄ ("sheep-plucking pen").
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
1(asz@c) sze gur 1(asz@c) ziz2 gur 2(barig@c) zi3 sig15 3(barig@c) dabin 2(barig@c) nig2-ar3-ra [n] bappir 2(barig@c) munu4# 3(barig@c) sze kasz#-kam ma2-lah4-ne an-ne-szum2 e2-dumu-kam iti ga2#-udu-ur4
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — CUSAS 35, 150. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P252777) — 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.