Position in chronology
Nisaba 25, 23
About this tablet
A fragment of one of the oldest written records from the city of Ur, dating to the Early Dynastic period (roughly 2800–2600 BCE), excavated by Leonard Woolley (the excavation number U.30139 is still inked on it). It is a simple roster: each surviving box on the tablet records the numeral 1 followed by a personal name — nine individuals in all before the text breaks off. Lists like this were the everyday bookkeeping of an early urban administration, counting workers, offering recipients, or ration-holders, and they preserve some of the earliest personal names we can read, including one man named after the snake-god Niraḫ.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a head-count, one person per line: Šešib-du, one; Ur-ge, one; Amar-ME-TE, one; Amar-Niraḫ, one; Ama-ulgal, one; a woman(?) named [Munus]-alan, one; Pabilga, one; Bil-mesi, one; Ama-GAsi, one. In modern terms it reads like a sign-in sheet or payroll register — nine named individuals ticked off one by one for some purpose the broken tablet no longer tells us. The rest of the list, and whatever total or heading it once carried, is lost where the tablet is broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 — Šešib-du (ŠEŠ+IB-du10) 1 — Ur-ge (Ur-ge6, "dog/man of the night") 1 — Amar-ME-TE 1 — Amar-Niraḫ ("calf of the snake-god Niraḫ") 1 — Ama-ulgal [1 — Munus?]-alan 1 — Pabilga 1 — Bil-mesi 1 — Ama-GAsi (ama-GA2-si) (remainder broken)
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
1(N01) , |SZESZ+IB|-du10 1(N01) , ur-ge6 1(N01) , amar#-ME#-TE# 1(N01) , amar-nirahx(UET2_153) 1(N01) , ama-ul4-gal [1(N01) munus?]-alan# 1(N01) , pa-bilx(|NE.PAP.UET2_377|)#-ga# 1(N01) , bilx(|NE.PAP.UET2_377|)#-me-si 1(N01) , ama-GA2-si [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — Nisaba 25, 23. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P449010) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
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.