Position in chronology
BIN 08, 010
About this tablet
A small Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Mesopotamia, likely dating around 2600–2400 BCE, recording a disbursement of precious metals — silver in several grades or categories — alongside a small quantity of female-goat wool weighed in minas. The entries follow a tight formulaic structure typical of temple or palace commodity tracking: quantity, commodity descriptor, weight unit. The closing phrase 'was delivered,' attached to a female worker's name (Geme, 'female servant,' followed by a theophoric or institutional element), identifies the transaction as a completed transfer. Several commodity descriptors in the middle lines — particularly those involving 'mountain' and the paired TAR signs — remain opaque and may refer to imported metal types or processing grades that are not yet fully understood.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet opens by recording five shekels of refined silver. Then follow several entries, each of one unit, listing different grades or varieties of silver — including what seems to be imported or mountain-origin metal in various states of processing — each measured by the talent. One entry shifts to wool: a full mina of hair from female goats, weighed out. A small fractional entry closes the commodity lines with a term that may mean 'not yet received.' The whole consignment was handled by a woman named something like Geme-Ur-Ganun. The final word: it was delivered. The middle entries describing the metal grades are too damaged or obscure to translate with confidence.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine5 shekels of refined silver 1 [unit?] of silver(?), [by the] talent 1 [unit] mountain PA, [by the] talent 1 [unit] x DIB(?) mountain x, [by the] talent 1 [unit] PA TAR-TAR(?), [of] pure silver, [by the] talent 1 [unit] yellow-green(?), silver 1 [unit] UD-tongue/blade 1 mina of female-goat wool, weighed 1/3 [unit] nu-gu Geme-Ur-Ganun(?) — was delivered
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
5(asz@c) ku3-luh gin2 1(asz@c) ku3-babbar? gu2 1(asz@c) kur PA gu2 1(asz@c) x DIB? kur x gu2 1(asz@c) PA TAR-TAR? ku3#-ga gu2 1(asz@c) SIG7? ku3 1(asz@c) UD eme 1(asz@c) ma-na siki ud5 AG 1/3(asz@c) nu-gu geme2?-ur-ganun? ba-de6
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — BIN 08, 010. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Nies Babylonian Collection, Yale Babylonian Collection, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (P221538) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
Related tablets
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.