Position in chronology
Nik 1, 076
About this tablet
This small pillow-shaped clay tablet is a grain-disbursement record from Girsu (modern Tello), one of the great cities of the Sumerian state of Lagash, dated to the very first year of the reign of the ruler Uru-KA-gina (also read Urukagina or Uru-inimgina), famous for his later social reforms. It records quantities of emmer wheat, seed grain, and barley issued for a named agricultural field, handled by a plowman named Inimanizi and authorized by the overseer Enigal — a routine but precious glimpse into how the temple-palace economy tracked grain, land, and labor almost 4,500 years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a receipt for grain issued to a field administrator. Seven gur of top-quality white emmer wheat, one gur of gu-nida wheat, one barig of wheat, and some emmer set aside as seed grain were allocated for the field known as 'the mound of Abu.' The transaction was handled by Inimanizi, the chief plowman, with authorization from Enigal, the inspector, who saw that the grain was set aside for him. A further note records that barley from the harvest was also disbursed. The document is dated to the first year of Uru-KA-gina, king of Lagash.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine7 gur (saggal-standard) white emmer wheat, 1 gur gu-nida wheat, 1 barig wheat, emmer (for) seed — for the field of Du-abu ("the mound of Abu"): Inimanizi, the chief plowman — Enigal, the inspector, placed (it) for him. Barley, the yield, was allotted. Uru-KA-gina, king of Lagash. Year 1.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
7(asz@c) ziz2 babbar2 gur saggal 1(asz@c) ziz2 gu2-nida 1(barig@c) gig ziz2 numun GAN2 du6 ab-u2-ka-sze3 inim-ma-ni-zi sag-apin-na-ra en-ig-gal nu-banda3 e-na-ta-gar sze u2-rum ba-ba6 URU-KA-gi-na lugal lagasz 1(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 076. 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 (P221845) — 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.