Position in chronology
CBS 08117
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Nippur, dated around 2500–2350 BCE, recording the issue of a single fine women's garment from the stores of the Enlil temple — the most prestigious religious institution in the Sumerian world. The official who made the disbursement was the temple's szabra, its chief administrator, a man named Ug-il, who weighed the garment out personally. Even routine clothing transactions in this great temple household required written documentation: the scribe noted not just the item and the responsible official but the precise date, the 7th day of the Brick-mold Placed month, a festival period in the Nippur calendar tied to ritual construction activity.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One fine outer cloak — a bar-dul5 garment — issued to the women of the Enlil temple. The temple's chief administrator, Ug-il, weighed it out. The transaction was recorded on the 7th day of the Brick-mold Festival month.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 garment, bar-dul5 (covering cloak), fine-grade (sal-la), for the women — before [the temple of] Enlil: the szabra (temple administrator), Ug-il, weighed [it] out. Month: Brick-mold Placed, day 7 having passed.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(asz@c) tug2 bar-dul5 sal-la munus-ne igi-en-lil2-sze3 szabra ug3-il2 i3-na-la2 iti sig4 u5-szub-ba-gar u4 7(disz) zal-la-a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — CBS 08117. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P263025) — 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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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.