Position in chronology
UET 2, 0278
About this tablet
An archaic administrative account from the city of Ur, written around 2800 BCE in the Early Dynastic period — among the oldest written documents from that city. A scribe tallied quantities of goods and animals, some of them destined for or belonging to religious institutions: ten calves connected with the moon-god Nanna, Ur's patron deity, and forty items linked to the Abzu, the shrine of the freshwater deep. The tablet is heavily worn and several entries are lost, but it shows the temple economy of Ur already generating careful paperwork centuries before connected literature existed.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a running tally, entry by entry. Eighty units of a first-quality commodity — perhaps reed bundles or onions — were received or handed over. Three units of horns went to the princely storehouse. The next several entries — quantities of two, one, twenty, and one — are too damaged to read. Then the account resumes: ten calves belonging to the god Nanna, and forty figures (or objects) for the Abzu shrine. A final entry records one unit of something involving a 'mother', possibly of mixed grade. The back of the tablet was left blank.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse: 80 (units): An(?) — first quality — reed-bundle(?) — received(?) — SUM SUM (delivered/onions?) 3 (units): ME — horns — of the princely storehouse (NUN) 2 (units) [...] — [...] 1 (unit) — [...] 20 (units) [...] — [...] 1 (unit) — [...] ... [...] — ... ... [...] 10 (units): calves of Nanna 40 (units): statue(s)/figure(s) of the Abzu (no number): ... A 1 (unit): KA — mother(?) — mixed(?) (blank line) Reverse: uninscribed.
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
8(N14) , AN# SAG@g? GI#? SZU SUM~b SUM~b? 3(N01) , ME~a SI NUN~a 2(N01) [...] , [...] 1(N01) , [...] 2(N14)# [...] , [...] 1(N01)# , [...] X [...] , X X [...] 1(N14) , AMAR# NANNA~a# 4(N14) , ALAN~a ABZU , X A 1(N01) , KA~a AMA~b HI ,
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0278. 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: British Museum, London, UK (P005868) — 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.