Position in chronology
UET 2, 0142
About this tablet
An account tablet from the very old city of Ur in southern Iraq, written around 2700 BCE in an early, still partly pictographic stage of cuneiform. It is a bookkeeper's list: quantities counted in tens — probably rations or deliveries of a commodity whose name stood in the now-broken opening lines — set against a series of recipients, among them the city ruler (ensi) and a temple administrator (sanga). Tablets like this, dug up in the 1930s excavations at Ur, show a city government already keeping systematic accounts centuries before the first literature was written down.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a distribution ledger, with its heading lost to damage. What survives reads like a payroll: thirty units to the city governor; ten units to an entry too obscure to name (something involving fish); thirty to the temple administrator of the calf; thirty more to another official; ten to the courtyard (or a person called Kisal-amar); thirty, ten, twenty, twenty, twenty to further individuals or offices whose names we can transliterate but not confidently translate; ten units against a flask; and ten in a final entry. The first few lines and the commodity being counted are broken away, and the back of the tablet is blank or worn smooth.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse; opening lines broken) [...] : [...] GALGA(?) [...] : [...] A [...] : [...] calf (AMAR), DUG×ḪI-vessel(?) 30 (3 × N14) : the city ruler (ensi) 10 (1 × N14) : MUD, fish, DIN, MA×2, AN, IR, MUŠ(?) (obscure designation or name) 30 (3 × N14) : the temple administrator (sanga) of the calf(?) 30 (3 × N14) [...] : [...] ME, EN, PA, KI [...] 10 (1 × N14) : courtyard (kisal), calf 30 (3 × N14) : ME, SI, NAGA 10 (1 × N14) : SI, GA₂×NUN, mother (AMA) 20 (2 × N14) : NI-ZI 20 (2 × N14) : statue(?) (ALAN), mother (AMA) 20 (2 × N14) : MA of the ZU.ZU-garden(?) 10 (1 × N14) : flask (šagan) 10 (1 × N14) : AK (reverse uninscribed or effaced)
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
[...] , [...] GALGA~a#? [...] , [...] A [...] , AMAR |DUG~axHI| 3(N14@f) , ENSI 1(N14@f) , MUD KU6~a DIN |MAx2(N57)| AN IR~a MUSZ3~a# 3(N14@f) , SANGA~a AMAR 3(N14@f)# [...] , [...] ME~a EN~a PA~a KI [...] 1(N14@f)# , KISAL~b1# AMAR 3(N14@f) , ME~a SI NAGA~a 1(N14@f) , SI |GA2~a1xNUN~a| AMA~b 2(N14@f) , NI~b ZI~a 2(N14@f) , ALAN~a AMA~b# 2(N14@f) , MA |(ZU&ZU).SAR~a| 1(N14@f) , SZAGAN 1(N14@f) , AK~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0142. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P005724) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.