Position in chronology
WF 021
About this tablet
An administrative record from Šuruppak (modern Fara) in southern Iraq, written around 2600 BCE in the Early Dynastic period — one of the oldest cities of Sumer. It tallies seven donkeys assigned to or received from four named men, including a town herald from the settlement of Nagsu and a scribe. A second scribe, Lu-zi, signed off, and the note 'new tablet' marks it as a fresh entry in the bookkeeping cycle. Documents like this show how thoroughly Sumerian cities tracked even small numbers of valuable draft animals, and they preserve some of the earliest personal names and job titles in history.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Donkey ledger: two young donkeys under Ḫa-NE; two with Zata, the town crier of Nagsu; two with AK-dingir, also of Nagsu; and one with Utu-šita, the scribe. Seven animals in all, each charged to a named man. Recorded by Lu-zi, the scribe. Filed as a new tablet.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse, col. i) 2 donkeys, foals(?) — Ḫa-NE; 2 — Zata, the herald of Nagsu; (col. ii) 2 — AK-dingir of Nagsu; 1 — Utu-šita, the scribe. (reverse) Lu-zi, the scribe. New tablet.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
2(asz@c) ansze dumu hax(|SAGxHA|)-NE 2(asz@c) za3-ta nimgir nag-su 2(asz@c) AK-dingir nag-su 1(asz@c) utu-szita dub-sar lu2-zi3@t dub-sar dub gibil
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — WF 021. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (P010978) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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Related sources
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.