Position in chronology
BIN 08, 007
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Adab (modern Bismaya in central-southern Iraq), dating to roughly 2600–2400 BCE, recording a distribution of workers among multiple temples and named individuals within what was then one of Sumer's significant city-states. Recipients include shrines of Inanna and Enki — two of the most prominent Sumerian deities — alongside smaller local sanctuaries and at least three named personnel. The tablet closes with a date (day 17) and a reference to a 'chariot field,' hinting at a connection to the city's military or transport infrastructure: agricultural fields earmarked for chariot maintenance were a documented feature of Early Dynastic institutional estate management. The relationship between the nine-worker figure at the head and the itemized entries that follow is not fully transparent from the surviving text.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Nine workers are assigned to the e2-sar institution. Four go to the Ašgi temple, four to the e2-sahar, two to the temple of Inanna, three to the temple of Enki, and four to the household estate. One worker each goes to Dara-[U]-Enlil-gar, a person whose name is partly damaged, and An-ne. Eight small sanctuaries are also listed, along with the temple of Utu. This distribution was recorded on day 17, in connection with the chariot field.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine9 workers — [for/of] e2-sar; 4 — [for] Ašgi; 4 — [for] e2-sahar; 2 — [for] Inanna; 3 — [for] Enki; 4 — [for the e2]-dam; 1 — Dara-[U]-Enlil-gar; 1 — [x]-e2-si; 1 — An-ne; 8 — small sanctuaries; [temple of] Utu; day 17 (= 20 minus 3); [field of] the chariot.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) lu2 e2-sar 4(asz@c) asz8-gi4 4(asz@c) e2-sahar 2(asz@c) inanna 3(asz@c) en-ki 4(asz@c)# e2#-dam# 1(asz@c) dara3-U-en-lil2-gar 1(asz@c) x-e2-si 1(asz@c) an-ne2 8(asz@c) esz3 tur-tur e2 utu# u4 2(u@c) la2 3(asz@c) GAN2 gigir2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — BIN 08, 007. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Yale Babylonian Collection, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (P221536) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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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.