Position in chronology
Nik 1, 224
About this tablet
This is a small Early Dynastic (ED IIIb) administrative tablet from Girsu (modern Tello), recording a delivery of animal hides — sheep, nanny-goat, and kid-goat skins — from an official called the overseer, Ur-igi-ama, to a man named Šul-binum, dated by a local month name ("month of wool-rations"). It belongs to a large corpus of similar leather/hide accounts from the Early Dynastic temple economy of Lagash, published in the Nikolski (Nik 1) collection now in the Hermitage Museum. Such texts show the meticulous bookkeeping of raw materials (hides for leatherworking, alongside wool) moving through temple institutions nearly 4,500 years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is a short receipt: 54 sheep hides, 4 nanny-goat hides, and 8 kid-goat hides — all of standard quality — were handed over on behalf of Ur-igi-ama, an overseer, during the month known locally as "wool-rations." The hides were counted out and delivered to a man named Šul-binum. A small tally mark, "2," closes out the account, likely a check-total or reference number in the counting system used for this kind of record.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine54 sheep hides, 4 nanny-goat hides, 8 kid-goat hides — of regular/standard quality (šà-du10) — (from/for) Ur-igi-ama, the overseer (nu-banda3). Month: "Wool-rations" (iti siki-ba-ka). To Šul-binum it was counted out (delivered) — e-na-šid. 2 (tally notation: |ASZxDISZ@t|)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
5(u@c) 4(asz@c) kusz udu 4(asz@c) kusz ud5 8(asz@c) kusz masz sza3-du10 ur-igi-ama-sze3 nu-banda3 iti siki-ba-ka SZUL-bi2-nu-um-ra e-na-szid 2(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 224. 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: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P221993) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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Related sources
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