Position in chronology
UET 2, 0053
About this tablet
An administrative tablet from the city of Ur, written around 2700–2600 BCE in the Early Dynastic period — among the oldest written records from that famous site. It is a short account of beer, bread, and barley being handed out to named individuals, one of whom holds the office of vizier. Nothing literary here: this is the daily bookkeeping of an early urban institution, and the personal names it preserves (Ur-Nanna, honoring Ur's moon-god) are among the earliest recorded residents of the city.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A disbursement note: two measures of barley for brewing beer go to Ur-Nanna, top grade. One jar of first-quality beer and two bread rations are issued in the presence of Bur-ama-gal, the vizier. One first-quality beer goes to An-im (perhaps with a spouse or dependent — the sign is damaged), one to Tur-ur, and one to Lugal-maš. Finally, seven bread rations are charged to Lugal-kab-DA. The last line is too damaged to read, and the back of the tablet carries no further entries.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) 2(?) — barley (for) beer, — Ur-Nanna, first quality (SAG); 1 — first-quality beer, 2 — bread (GAR), — before Bur-ama-gal, the vizier; 1 — first-quality beer, — An-im, the spouse(?) ... [sign lost]; 1 — first-quality beer, — Tur-ur; 1 — first-quality beer, — Lugal-maš; 7 — bread (GAR), Lugal-kab-DA; — ... [final line illegible]. (reverse: uninscribed or effaced apart from faint traces)
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
2(N01@f)? , SZE~a KASZ~a , UR~a NANNA~a SAG 1(N01@f) , SAG KASZ~a 2(N01@f) , GAR , IGI BUR~a AMA~b GAL~a SUKKAL 1(N01@f) , SAG KASZ~a , AN IM~a DAM? X 1(N01@f) , SAG KASZ~a , TUR UR~a 1(N01@f) , SAG KASZ~a , LUGAL MASZ 7(N01@f) , GAR LUGAL KAB DA~a , X
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0053. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P005626) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.