Position in chronology
UET 2, 0183
About this tablet
An administrative barley account from the city of Ur, written around 2700–2600 BCE, in the earliest phase of Sumerian record-keeping. A scribe lists quantities of grain in two different measuring systems, assigned to a short roster of recipients that recurs in both sections — beginning with the city ruler himself and ending with a temple administrator who signs off on the account. It is a snapshot of how one of the world's first cities tracked its staple food, person by person, five thousand years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a grain ledger. In the first section, measured in the standard large units, barley in ration vessels goes to the ruler (about 40 units), then to a handful of named individuals or offices — AN-MUŠ₃-AK, LA-LA-NI, MA-NUNUZ, the woman of the TI household, and the dairy chief — each with their own amount, one entry partly broken. The second section runs through nearly the same list again, this time counted in a different, larger measure, and adds one more recipient, the flask-keeper. The final line closes the account: it is all barley, under the authority of the temple administrator of the institutional household.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) 4 large measures (N14): barley, in NINDA₂׊IM (ration-)vessels — the ruler (ensi); 5 large measures, 2 units: AN-MUŠ₃-AK; 4 large measures, 4 units: LA-LA-NI; 3 large measures, 2 units, 1 small fraction: MA-NUNUZ; 3 large measures, 3 units: the woman of the house of TI (SAL-E₂-TI); [...] 2 units, 1 small fraction: GAL-GARA₂ (the chief of the dairy?); (second accounting section, in the N19/N04 measure system) 2 great measures (N19), 3 sub-measures (N04): AN-MUŠ₃-AK; 2(?) great measures, 3 sub-measures: LA-LA-NI; 3 great measures, 3 sub-measures: MA-NUNUZ; 1 great measure: the woman of the house of TI; 2 great measures: GAL-GARA₂; 1 great measure: ŠAGAN (the flask-keeper?); (summary line) ... barley — the temple administrator (sanga) of the AB (institutional household / cattle-stall).
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
4(N14@f) , SZE~a |NINDA2xSZIM~a| ENSI 5(N14@f) 2(N01@f) , AN MUSZ3~a AK~a 4(N14@f) 4(N01@f) , LA~e LA~e NI~b 3(N14@f) 2(N01@f) 1(N08@f) , MA NUNUZ~a1 3(N14@f) 3(N01@f) , SAL E2~a TI [...] 2(N01@f)# 1(N08@f) , GAL~a GARA2~a 2(N19@f) 3(N04@f) , AN MUSZ3~a AK~a 2(N19@f)? 3(N04@f) , LA~e LA~e NI~b 3(N19@f) 3(N04@f) , MA NUNUZ~a1 1(N19@f) , SAL E2~a TI 2(N19@f) , GAL~a GARA2~a 1(N19@f) , SZAGAN , SZE~a SANGA~a AB~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0183. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P005771) — 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.