Position in chronology
TMH 05, 162
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic account tablet from Nippur, roughly 2400 BCE, listing provisions handed over for a religious offering. Two animals, several measures of malt, groats and different grades of barley flour, and sixty loaves of beer-bread are booked out of an estate called the "House of the Field," under the authority of the overseer of Inanna's temple. The text labels the whole consignment a mašdarea — a ceremonial gift presented to a deity — and connects it to a journey, probably a cultic procession, in the month of Duku. It is a small window onto how a Sumerian temple financed its festivals: not with money, but with animals, grain and beer.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Goods issued: four rams, one kid, one gur and one barig of crushed malt, two gur two barig of coarse groats, one lidga of fine flour, two gur of dabin flour, one lidga and one barig of gu-flour, and sixty loaves of beer-bread — all set aside for inspection. The supplies came from the estate called the House of the Field, released on the authority of the overseer of Inanna's temple. The whole lot was designated a mašdarea, a ceremonial gift to the goddess, earmarked for a journey. Dated to the month of Duku.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine4 rams, 1 kid (goat), 1 gur 1 barig of crushed malt, 2 gur 2 barig of nig-bara (coarse barley groats), 1 lidga of fine flour, 2 gur of dabin-flour, 1 lidga 1 barig of gu-flour, 60 (loaves of) beer-bread — (for) the inspection. (From) the E-GAN (the "House of the Field"). The overseer of the temple of Inanna. A mašdarea-offering. (For) the journey. Month: Duku.
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
4(asz@c) udu-nita 1(asz@c) masz2 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) munu4 gum gur 2(asz@c) 2(barig@c) nig2-bar-ra gur 1(asz@c) zi3 sig15 lid2-ga 2(asz@c) dabin gur 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) zi3 gu lid2-ga 1(gesz2@c) bappir igi-du8 e2-GAN2 ugula e2 inanna masz2-da-re-a KASKAL iti du6-ku3-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 162. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Hilprecht Collection, University of Jena, Germany (P020576) — 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.