Position in chronology
CUSAS 35, 097
About this tablet
A bread ration record from Adab (modern Bismaya, southern Iraq), written during the Early Dynastic III period, roughly 2500–2350 BCE. Three named individuals — Ma-u2, Ur-Šer7-da, and I-la-la — each received allocations of ninda-bread loaves from an institutional store: 122, 61, and 122 loaves respectively, totaling 305 loaves. A standard closing formula confirms the goods were physically carried and delivered. The tablet is dated to day 27 of the local month Ab-e3-zi-da — an Adab calendar month whose name probably commemorates the seasonal release of livestock from their stalls — making this a dated delivery receipt, the routine paperwork of a Sumerian temple or palace kitchen.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Three workers received bread from the institution's stores on the 27th day of the month Ab-e3-zi-da: Ma-u2 got 122 loaves, Ur-Šer7-da got 61, and I-la-la got 122. The whole consignment was loaded, carried, and delivered in full.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine122 ninda-bread-loaves — Ma-u2. 61 [ninda]-bread-loaves — Ur-Šer7-da. 122 ninda-bread-loaves — I-la-la. Neck-load delivery; it is his bringing: has been brought. Month: Ab-e3-zi-da, day 27.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
2(gesz2@c)# ninda 2(asz@c) ma#-u2 1(gesz2@c) [ninda] 1(asz@c) ur-szer7-da 2(gesz2@c) ninda# 2(asz@c) i3-la-la gu2 DU tum2-ma-ni-kam al-de6 iti ab-e3 zi-da u4 2(u@c) 7(disz@t)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — CUSAS 35, 097. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P252716) — 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.