Position in chronology
VS 14, 029
About this tablet
A grain-ration account from Girsu (modern Tello) in southern Iraq, drawn up under Uru-inim-gina (URU-KA-gi-na), the last king of Lagash, around 2350 BCE. It totals the barley paid out in one distribution from the storehouse of the goddess Baba: rations for female labourers and their children, for porters and for the low-status 'igi-nu-du8' workers, plus the barley set aside for the temple's regular monthly bread offerings. The grand total — 133 gur less 2 ban2, several tonnes of grain — is stated in the large 'gur-saggal' measure, and the tablet is dated to the king's fifth year. Texts like this one from the Baba temple archive are our single best window into how an early Sumerian city-state actually fed its workforce.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Grain issue from the temple storehouse of Baba. Rations: 75 gur, 2 barig, 1 ban of barley (large standard measure) for the women workers, their children, the carriers and the igi-nu-du8 men. A further 47 gur, 1 barig, 3 ban went to the standing monthly bread offering, and 10 gur is held as the supplementary portion. Grand total: 133 gur less 2 ban of barley, large measure — barley paid out to the personnel of Baba. King Uru-inim-gina of Lagash released it from Baba's granary and distributed it to them. Year 5.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine75 gur 2 barig 1 ban2 of barley, by the gur-saggal (standard) measure — barley rations of the female workers, (their) children, the porters, (and) the igi-nu-du8 workers. 47 gur 1 barig 3 ban2 of barley for the regular monthly bread offerings. 10 gur of barley: its bar-portion is on hand. Total: 133 gur less 2 ban2 of barley, by the gur-saggal measure — barley rations, barley issued, (for) the people of Baba. URU-KA-gi-na (Uru-inim-gina), king of Lagash, from the granary of Baba distributed it to them. 5th (year).
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(gesz2@c) 1(u@c) 5(asz@c) 2(barig@c) 1(ban2@c) sze gur saggal sze-ba geme2 dumu il2 igi-nu-du8 5(u@c) la2 3(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) sze ninda sa2-du11 iti-da 1(u@c) sze bar-bi gal2 szu-nigin2 2(gesz2@c) 1(u@c) 3(asz@c) la2 2(ban2@c) sze gur saggal sze-ba sze gar lu2 ba-ba6-ke4-ne URU-KA-gi-na lugal lagasz-ke4 ganun ba-ba6-ta e-ne-ba 5(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — VS 14, 029. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (P020043) — 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.