Position in chronology
UET 2, 0068b
About this tablet
An early administrative account from the city of Ur, written around 2800 BCE in the Early Dynastic period — among the older written documents from that site. It records quantities of barley measured out in standard ration units, plus an obscure entry involving wood, allotted to officials including the governor (ensi) and someone bearing the title 'great lugal'. It is not literature but bookkeeping: the everyday grain accounting of an emerging city administration, from centuries before connected Sumerian prose existed.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a grain ledger. Four measures of barley in the standard ration unit go to the governor; twenty more measures of barley follow, then five large units of a wood product whose name is damaged. One further ration measure of barley is listed, then an entry for a person or office called MIR-A, two measures of barley for 'A', and one measure connected with a senior official titled 'great lugal'. The final line, and whatever stood after it, is broken away and lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) 4 (N1 units) — barley, (in) NINDA₂׊IM (ration-vessel measure) — the governor (ENSI); 2 (N14 tens) — barley; 5 (N19 large-capacity units) — wood(?) LA...(?) [...]; 1 (N1 unit) — barley, (in) NINDA₂׊IM (ration-vessel measure); — ... MIR-A (personal name or designation); 2 (N1 units) — barley — A; 1 (N1 unit) — the great LUGAL(-official) ... RA(?)-PA₃(?); [...] — [...] (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(N01@f) , SZE~a |NINDA2xSZIM~a| ENSI 2(N14@f) , SZE~a# 5(N19@f)# , GISZ LA~e? [...] 1(N01@f) , SZE~a |NINDA2xSZIM~a| , MIR~a A 2(N01@f) , SZE~a A 1(N01@f) , LUGAL GAL~a RA? PA3# [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0068b. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P005642) — 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.