Position in chronology
UET 2, 0229
About this tablet
A small administrative account from Ur in the Early Dynastic period, around 2700–2500 BCE — among the earliest written records from that famous city. A scribe tallied quantities of goods (eleven of one item, fifteen each of two others, including honey or date syrup) against names, titles, and institutions such as 'the lord' and 'the house.' The top of the tablet is broken away, so the opening entries are lost, but what survives is the everyday bookkeeping of an emerging urban economy, centuries before connected sentences were routinely written down.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a short ledger, with its first entries broken off. One lost line dealt with food portions or deposited goods. Then the readable accounts: eleven units of something connected with horns and 'the lord'; fifteen units of honey (or date syrup) charged to a man whose name or affiliation is lost; and fifteen units of an item entered under 'A-GAL' for the 'calf of the household' — either a young animal or a junior member of the estate. The last case on the tablet was left blank, and the reverse carries no writing.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineobverse (line 1) [...] , [...] food portion(s) (GAR, sign damaged) (line 2) [...] , ... [...] (line 3) 11 (= 1×10 + 1) , ... (A, damaged), horn(s) (SI), the lord (EN), ...(A?) (line 4) 15 (= 1×10 + 5) , honey/syrup (LAL3) — the man (LU2) [of ...] (line 5) 15 (= 1×10 + 5) , A(-)GAL — calf (AMAR) of the house/storehouse (E2) (line 6) (empty case)
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
[...] , [...] GAR# [...] , X [...] 1(N14@f) 1(N01) , A# SI EN~a A? 1(N14@f) 5(N01@f) , LAL3~b LU2 1(N14@f) 5(N01@f) , A GAL~a AMAR E2~a ,
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0229. 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 (P005825) — 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.