Position in chronology
CUSAS 35, 228
About this tablet
A small clay tablet from Adab (modern Bismaya, in southern Iraq), written around 2400 BCE, listing quantities of cloth and garments held or issued by an institutional household. The scribe groups the first four entries as items made of suluḫu cloth — a specific wool grade — and then adds a second block of plain totals for the same garment types plus two further cloth names, ha-la-um and aktum. It is bookkeeping at its most basic: no names, no dates, just an inventory of textiles, the single most valuable manufactured commodity of early Sumer.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A textile inventory: six niĝ-lam garments, six ib-ba-du garments, four belts and one du-gi garment, all made of suluḫu-quality wool cloth. Then a second tally without the fabric specification — thirteen belts, seven ib-ba-du garments, two niĝ-lam garments, four ha-la-um cloths and two aktum cloths. Nothing else is recorded; the back of the tablet was left blank.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine6 niĝ-lam garments, suluḫu cloth; 6 ib-ba-du garments, suluḫu cloth; 4 niĝ-la (belt/sash) garments, suluḫu cloth; 1 du-gi garment, suluḫu cloth; 13 niĝ-la (belts/sashes); 7 ib-ba-du garments; 2 niĝ-lam garments; 4 ha-la-um cloths; 2 aktum cloths. (Reverse uninscribed.)
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
6(asz@c) nig2-lam2 tug2 suluhux(|SIKI.GID2|) 6(asz@c) ib2-ba-du3 tug2 suluhux(|SIKI.GID2|) 4(asz@c) nig2-la2! tug2 suluhux(|SIKI.GID2|) 1(asz@c) du5-gi4 tug2 suluhux(|SIKI.GID2|) 1(u@c) 3(asz@c) nig2-la2 7(asz@c) ib2-ba-du3 2(asz@c) nig2-lam2 4(asz@c) ha-la-um 2(asz@c) aktum
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC) ?) — CUSAS 35, 228. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P252879) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.