Position in chronology
UET 2, 0047
About this tablet
A small administrative account from Ur in the Early Dynastic period, roughly 2800–2600 BCE — among the earliest written records from that city. It tallies small numbers of animals (the first entry counts kid goats) against a series of short sign-clusters that are most likely personal names or official designations, including one entry for a 'tablet man', apparently a scribe. Tablets like this show writing still close to its origins: terse columns of numbers and names, the everyday bookkeeping of an emerging urban economy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a short delivery or allocation list: three young goats booked to a man or household written A-mud-nun; two units each to two further individuals whose names are spelled with clusters of early signs (something like Ne-gish-pap-gal-gir and Alan-ne-pap); one unit to the scribe, the 'tablet man'; and two units to a person whose name ends in the bird sign. Ten items in all, spread over five recipients. The back of the tablet was left blank and is now damaged; there is no total or date preserved.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) 3 kid goats — E2-a-mud-nun (household of A-mud-nun?); 2 — Ne-gish-pap-gal-gir; 2 — Alan-ne-pap-[gaʾar?]; 1 — the tablet-man (scribe, Lu-dub); 2 — Ni-ud-mushen ("...-bird"). (reverse: uninscribed / broken away)
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
3(N01@f) , MASZ2 E2~a A MUD NUN~a 2(N01@f) , NE~a GISZ~v PAP~a GAL~a GIR2~a 2(N01@f) , ALAN~a NE~a PAP~a GA'AR~b1? 1(N01@f) , LU2 DUB~a 2(N01@f) , NI~b U4 MUSZEN
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0047. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P005620) — 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.