Position in chronology
CST 022
About this tablet
A small Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Mesopotamia, probably dating to around 2600–2350 BCE, recording a mixed commodity account: large barley allocations to two named individuals (Ama-tuku-gal-zu and Nin-ur-ni), pig fat and livestock, textile garments, and running silver valuations. The closing lines name an authorizing official (An-gal2), give a total in silver, and end with a formal statement that the tablet itself was issued — the ancient equivalent of signing and dating a document. Such tablets are the workaday output of Sumerian institutional bookkeeping, whether temple or palace, and this one is unusually complete in recording both quantities-in-kind and their silver equivalents side by side.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Ama-tuku-gal-zu received 15 gur of barley; Nin-ur-ni received 1 gur and 2 barig. The account also covers 15 units of pig fat (worth 1½ shekels of silver), 2 gur of a luxury commodity, 1 sheep (silver value broken), 2 pigs set aside for eating, 2 outer garments, and 1 additional garment. A running total of 43 shekels of silver is noted. The final lines — partly damaged — place the transaction under the authority of An-gal2, record a further 1 mina of silver, and close with the declaration that this clay tablet has been formally issued.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine15 gur of barley — for Ama-tuku-gal-zu; 1 gur, 2 barig — for Nin-ur-ni; 15 (units of) pig fat — UMBIN(-type); 1½ shekels of silver — its value; 2 (gur of) nig2-lam2; 1 sheep — its silver [value: ...]; 2 pigs — (for) consumption; 2 bar-dul5-garments; 1 dul(?)-garment; 43(?) shekels of silver; property of x-[...]; [year/name(?)]: [...]-ki-gal-la(?); in the matter of An-gal2; 1 mina of silver; its clay was given (document issued).
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) 5(asz@c) sze gur ama-tuku-gal-zu 1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) nin-ur2!-ni 1(u@c) 5(as@c) i3-szah2 UMBIN 1(disz) 1/2(disz) ku3 gin2-kam 2(asz@c) nig2-lam2 1(asz@c) udu ku3-bi# [...] 2(asz@c) szah2 nig2-gu7 2(asz@c) bar-dul5 1(asz@c) tug2 dul? 4(u)? 3(disz) ku3 gin2# nig2 x-[(...)] mu-bi#?-ki-gal#-la#?-[(x)] inim-ma an-gal2 1(asz@c) ku3 ma-na-kam#? im-bi al-szum2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — CST 022. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (P212946) — 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.