Position in chronology
Nisaba 25, 56
About this tablet
An administrative account from archaic Ur in southern Iraq, written in the Early Dynastic period, nearly five thousand years ago — one of the tablets excavated by Woolley at Tell Muqayyar (its dig number, U.18378, is still inked on the edge). A scribe tallied out bread, beer, vessels, and livestock against named individuals and temple officials, including a 'sage' (abgal) and a member of the ŠEŠ+IB priesthood. Terse and formulaic, it is the everyday paperwork of one of the world's first city administrations, from a stage of writing so early that many signs and names remain only partly understood.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A disbursement ledger: twenty loaves of aromatic bread go to Aklulu; four metal vessels to Ama-pagusi; single units each to the nam₂-bil official, to Amar-enun, and to another person whose name is now illegible — a further line is lost entirely. On the second column, one unit goes to someone whose name can't be read with certainty; measures are recorded for cattle; eleven-and-a-fraction portions of bread are set down for the rites of Ur; one jar of barley beer follows; small fractional amounts go to the ŠEŠ+IB priest and to Ludu; and four units are allotted to the temple sage. The reverse of the tablet is blank or worn away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse, column i) 20 [units of] šim-bread (NINDA₂׊IM) — Aklulu; 4 — šen-vessels — Ama-pagusi; 1 — the nam₂-bil official(?); 1 — Amar-enun; 1 — ... (name illegible); [...] — ... (line broken); (column ii) 1 — ... (signs uncertain: IŠ ZU?); 1(N19) 2(N04) [measures] — cow(s); 11 [and] 1(N08) [i.e. a fraction] — bread of the me-rites(?) of Ur (Ararma); 1 — barley beer; 1(N08) — the nam₂ [official] of the ŠEŠ+IB [priesthood]; 1(N08) — Ludu; 4 — the abgal (sage-priest).
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(N14@f)# , |NINDA2xSZIM|# ak-lu-lu# 4(N01@f) , szen ama-pa#-gu2-si 1(N01@f) , nam2-bilx(|NE.PAP.UET2_077|)#? 1(N01@f) , amar-e2#-nun 1(N01@f)# , x-x [...] , x-[...] 1(N01@f)# , ISZ ZU#? 1(N19@f) 2(N04@f) , ab 1(N14@f) 1(N01@f) 1(N08@f) , ninda me!-ararma2 1(N01@f) , kasz sze 1(N08@f) , nam2# |SZESZ+IB|# 1(N08@f) , lu-du# 4(N01@f) , abgal
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — Nisaba 25, 56. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P449043) — 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.