Position in chronology
Nik 1, 240
About this tablet
This is a small Early Dynastic (Presargonic) administrative tablet from Girsu, part of the extensive Lagash-Girsu wool/textile accounting archive to which the 'Nik 1' publication series belongs. It records disbursements of wool sheared from nanny-goats (ud5-da) to three named individuals — Ur-Šubur, Namaḫni, and Alla — under the authority of an overseer (nu-banda3), with a closing verb confirming the goods were actually handed over. Texts like this one are the raw bookkeeping of a large temple or palace household economy, tracking exactly who received raw wool for spinning or weaving.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is a wool-disbursement receipt. An unspecified quantity of nanny-goat wool, described as belonging to 'Mar,' was issued to a man named Ur-Šubur. One unit of the same kind of wool went to Namaḫni, and another unit went to Alla. The next lines, which likely named an additional recipient and gave more detail, are too broken to read. The record closes by naming an overseer and confirming with a standard closing formula that the wool 'was given' — i.e., the transaction was completed and entered into the books.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[x (units of)] wool of nanny-goats — it is Mar's: Ur-Šubur. 1 (unit) wool of nanny-goats — it is Mar's: Namaḫni. 1 (unit) wool of nanny-goats — it is Mar's: Alla. i₃-[...... (broken)] [...... (broken)] overseer. He gave it to him (e-ne-šum₂).
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
[x] siki ud5-da mar-kam ur-szubur# 1(asz@c) siki ud5-da mar-kam nam-mah-ni 1(asz@c) siki ud5-da mar-kam al-la i3#?-[...] [...] nu-[banda3] e-ne-szum2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 240. 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 (P222009) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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