Position in chronology
UET 2, 0161
About this tablet
An administrative account from the city of Ur in the Early Dynastic period, roughly 2800–2600 BCE — among the earliest written records from that city. It lists quantities of goods (probably grain or livestock-related commodities) against a series of names and households, including a man called Ušumgal ('Dragon') and entries tied to the 'house of the prince.' It is not literature but bookkeeping: the day-to-day accounting of an early urban institution, from the very first centuries of writing at Ur.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a running tally. The first entry is broken, but mentions a plow and what may be onions. Then the list continues: one unit charged to Ama-... of the prince's household; two units to An-ama, with an ox; three units to Ušumgal; two units for a container (or boat), possibly connected with Kiš; ten units to Lugal-...-ti; one further unit against a name now lost. After a gap, the reverse records twenty units for another member of the Ama-... household or storehouse, then notes a deficit — an amount still outstanding — before the text breaks off with a final, mostly illegible entry.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) [...] : ... plow, SUM, SUM (garlic/onions?) 1 (N22-unit) : Ama-..., horn(?), (of) the house of the prince (E2-NUN) 2 (N22-units) : An-ama(?), ox 3 (N01-units) : Ušumgal 2 (N22-units) : MA (container/boat?), Kiš(?) 10 (1 N14) : Lugal-...-ti 1 (N22-unit) [...] : [...] (Break) 20 (2 N14) : [...] Ama-..., house, DA, NUN (storehouse?) ... : deficit (LA2) [...] [...] : great(?) ... [...]
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
[...] , X APIN~a SUM~b SUM~b 1(N22) , AMA~b# SI E2~a NUN~a 2(N22) , AN AMA~b GU4 3(N01) , USZUMGAL 2(N22) , MA# KISZ#? 1(N14) , LUGAL X TI# 1(N22) [...] , [...] 2(N14) , [...] AMA~b# E2~a DA~a# NUN~a , LA2 [...] [...] , GAL~a# X [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0161. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P005746) — 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.