Position in chronology
WF 146
About this tablet
A small clay tablet from Šuruppak (modern Fara) in southern Iraq, written around 2500 BCE, now in the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin. It is a working account: quantities of reed measured out in archaic numerical signs and assigned to a series of named men — Ba-zi, two men whose names begin with the sun-god Utu, the registrar Sa₁₂-du₅, E-si, Kisal-si, Mes-ki-nu-zu — all under an overseer called Nig-si. Reed was a basic building and craft material in the marshy south, and tablets like this are the routine paperwork that kept a temple or estate workshop supplied. The lower half of the tablet has flaked away, so the totals and the responsible institution are lost.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Reed issued, five units each, from the section under the overseer Nig-si: five to Ba-zi, five to Utu-di-ku (name partly damaged), five to a second Utu-name now illegible. Then smaller mixed amounts — one large unit plus three smaller ones to Sa-du the registrar, one plus two to E-si, and a still smaller measure plus two to Kisal-si. A further entry of about two units goes to someone whose name is unreadable, one more line is lost entirely, and one unit is booked to Mes-ki-nu-zu. Everything after that is broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine5 (N51) reed(s) Overseer: Nig-si 5 (N51) — Ba-zi 5 (N51) — Utu-[di?]-ku₅(?) 5 (N51) — Utu-…-[…] 1 (N51) 3 (N14) — Sa₁₂-du₅ (the registrar) 1 (N51) 2 (N14) — E-si 1 (N34) 2 (N14) — Kisal-si 2 (N51)? — … … [n] […] 1 (N51) — Mes-ki-nu-zu (sign written UM) […] (Remainder broken; the lower part of the surface and the reverse are lost or uninscribed.)
Our translation engine — Opus 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
5(N51@f) gi ugula nig2-si 5(N51@f) ba-zi# 5(N51@f)# utu-[di?]-ku5#? 5(N51@f)# utu-x-[x] 1(N51@f) 3(N14@f) sa12-du5 1(N51@f) 2(N14@f) e2#-si 1(N34@ft) 2(N14@f) kisal#-si 2(N51@f)? x x n [...] 1(N51@f) mes!(UM)#-ki#-nu-zu [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC) ?) — WF 146. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (P011104) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.