Position in chronology
HSS 03, 48
About this tablet
This is a very small Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Girsu (ancient Tello), recording an allotment of beer and its raw ingredients — malt-cake, malt, and beer-bread — for the religious festival of the goddess Nanše, called 'barley-eating.' The beer, once made, was delivered to the palace and consumed there, with the account closing under the name of a man called Amar-giri16 and a brewer. Tiny cushion-shaped tablets like this one were routine bookkeeping notes tracking the raw materials that went into temple- and palace-sponsored feasts nearly 4,500 years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Five gur4-gur4 jars of fine beer were prepared. The ingredients used were: 3 ban2 of imgaga3 malt-cake, 5 ban2 of malt, and 3 ban2 of beer-bread. This was for the 'barley-eating' festival of the goddess Nanše. The regular offering, once brought in, was poured out and delivered to the palace, where it was consumed. The account is recorded under Amar-giri16 and the brewer, with a final tally of 5 units.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine5(asz@c) gur4-gur4-vessels of fine beer (kaš sig15) — its imgaga3(-malt-product): 3 ban2, its munu4 (malt): 5 ban2, its bappir (beer bread): 3 ban2 — (for) the festival "barley-eating" (ezem-še-gu7) of Nanše. The regular offering (sa2-du11), having been brought/deposited (ru-a), was poured out (ba-sur), into the palace (e2-gal-la) it was brought (ba-de6), consumed (gu7-a) — (by/for) Amar-giri16, the brewer (lu2 lunga), 5(units).
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
5(asz@c) gur4-gur4 kas sig15 imgaga3-bi 3(ban2@c) munu4-bi 5(ban2@c) bappir3-bi 3(ban2@c) ezem-sze-gu7 nansze-ka sa2-du11 ru-a ba-sur e2-gal-la ba-de6 gu7-a amar#-giri16 lu2 lungax(|BIxNIG2|) 5(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — HSS 03, 48. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P221357) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.