Position in chronology
UET 2, 0021
About this tablet
An accounting tablet from the very beginnings of the city of Ur, written around 2800 BCE in the Early Dynastic period — among the oldest written documents from that site. It records large quantities, in the hundreds, of what appear to be fibre or textile goods (flax or rope), sorted into categories, with a final large entry that likely served as a summary. The tablet is badly damaged, but it shows an administration at Ur already counting and classifying goods on a substantial scale centuries before connected Sumerian literature existed.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a warehouse tally. One line counts 286-plus units of a 'KAL'-grade flax product (the entry breaks off), another counts 160 units of flax of the 'BU' type, and a third counts 148 units in the 'small' category. The last line, probably the grand total, registers over 535 units, described with signs pointing to grain and loads (or talents) of flax. Each line pairs a big round-and-round numeral notation with a short label — quantity, then category. Much of the tablet is broken away, so the full account and any names of officials are lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 1. 4(N34) 4(N14) 6(N01) [...] (= 286+ units) — KAL, flax(?) [...] 2. 2(N34) 4(N14) (= 160 units) — flax(?), BU ... [...] 3. 2(N34) 2(N14) 8(N01) (= 148 units) — TUR ("small"-category?) [...] 4. 8(N34) [...] 5(N14) 5(N01) (= 535+ units, total line?) — ŠE, AN, talents(?) of flax (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
4(N34@f) 4(N14@f) 6(N01@f) [...] , KAL~b2 GU# [...] 2(N34@f) 4(N14@f) , GU# BU~a# X [...] 2(N34@f)# 2(N14@f) 8(N01@f) , TUR# [...] 8(N34@f)# [...] 5(N14@f)# 5(N01@f) , SZE3# AN GU2 GU
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0021. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P005594) — 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.