Position in chronology
UET 2, 0171a
About this tablet
A badly damaged administrative tablet from Ur in southern Iraq, written in the Early Dynastic period (early 3rd millennium BCE), among the oldest written documents from that city. It is a ledger: each line pairs a numeral with a commodity or category — sheep are recognizable, along with quality and size markers. Excavated by Leonard Woolley's expedition (field number U.12903), it shows the bookkeeping habits of one of the world's first urban economies, at a stage when writing was still close to its pictographic origins.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a page from an ancient account book, most of it worn away. What survives are a few line items: ten of something called KUN; thirteen units in an entry involving a first-quality grade; ten more connected with a sign that may mean 'statue' or 'figurine'; then smaller quantities — an entry marked with the 'tablet' sign, one lot of sheep, another lot described as 'mixed', and two of a 'small' category paired with the sign UR. The beginning and end of the document are lost, so we cannot say who was paying, receiving, or counting these goods.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) [...] ... [...] [...] ... [...] 1(N14) [= 10] — KUN (tail?) 1(N14) 3(N01) [= 13] — AN, first-quality(?), AK, ME 1(N14) [= 10] — ALAN(?), KUR, TA 2(N22) — DA(?), DUB (tablet/account sign?) 1(N22) — sheep, sheep (UDU UDU) 1(N22) 3(N01) — HI (mixed?), PA 2(N22) — TUR (small/junior?), UR [...] ... [...] (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
[...] , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N14) , KUN 1(N14) 3(N01) , AN SAG AK~a ME~a 1(N14) , ALAN~a KUR~b TA~f 2(N22) , DA~a#? DUB~a# 1(N22) , UDU~a UDU~a 1(N22) 3(N01) , HI PA~a 2(N22)# , TUR UR~a [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0171a. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P005757) — 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.