Position in chronology
Nik 1, 065
About this tablet
This small cushion-shaped clay tablet is an Early Dynastic administrative record from Girsu (Tello), part of the large Nikolski (Nik 1) archive of the Baba/Bau temple household at Lagash. It records a disbursement of seed-grain to two workers, U2-U2 and Udu'e, who apparently held no allotted GAN2-UL field of their own and so received grain directly from a temple storehouse. The transaction was authorized by Eniggal, a well-documented overseer (nubanda) who managed grain and land allocations for the temple administration in the mid-third millennium BCE — one of hundreds of such receipts that let historians reconstruct the workings of an early bureaucratic economy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Six gur and one barig of seed-grain, measured by the standard 'chief' gur, were issued to two men, U2-U2 and Udu'e, who did not hold a GAN2-UL field of their own. The grain was delivered to them from the temple storehouse known as the 'house of Kisala,' on the authority of Eniggal, the overseer. A final numeral, '6,' appears at the end of the text, likely some kind of docket or tally mark whose exact purpose is unclear.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine6 gur, 1 barig of seed-grain (measured by the “saggal”/chief gur-standard) — for U2-U2 (and) Udu'e — who have no GAN2-UL field, was delivered (ba-de6). Eniggal, the overseer (nubanda), from the house of Kisala (e2-ki-sal4-la) allotted it for them. 6.
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
6(asz@c) 1(barig@c) sze-numun gur saggal U2-U2 u2-du-e GAN2 UL nu-tuku ba-de6 en-ig-gal nu-banda3 e2 ki-sal4-la-ta e-na-ta-gar 6(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 065. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P221834) — 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.