Position in chronology
Nik 1, 080
About this tablet
This is a small Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Girsu (modern Tello), part of the archive of the Lagash palace household under the ruler Lugalanda, roughly the mid-24th century BCE. It records a large quantity of barley — about 89–90 gur, a substantial institutional volume — described as 'nig-enna' barley (a category tied to the ruling household), returned or repaid and checked by the well-known official Enig-gal, who served as inspector (nubanda) over palace and market administration. Enig-gal appears on many tablets from this archive overseeing deliveries, rations, and accounts, so this piece is a routine but historically valuable fragment of Early Dynastic Sumerian bureaucracy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records that about 90 gur of barley (minus 2 barig), measured by the standard gur-saggal measure, was accounted as 'nig-enna' barley — grain belonging to the ruling household — drawn from the field next to the plot of a person or place called Sal. The overseer responsible was a man named Šeš-ludu. The barley was then returned or repaid into official custody. The transaction was checked and recorded by Enig-gal, the inspector, in connection with the market-house, with a final notation of the number five, likely a scribal check-total or tally mark.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine90 (gur) less 2 barig — barley, gur-saggal (standard) measure — nig-enna barley (household/state barley), it is (from) the field bordering (that of) Sal4. Šeš-ludu, overseer. (reverse) was returned/repaid (šu-a bi2-gi4). Enig-gal, the inspector (nubanda), of the market-house (e2-ganba). (check-mark/notation): i3-si — 5.
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
1(gesz2@c) 3(u@c) la2 2(barig@c) sze gur saggal sze nig2-en-na GAN2 da sal4-ka-kam szesz-lu2-du10 ugula szu-a bi2-gi4 en-ig-gal nu-banda3 e2-ganba-ka-ka i3-si 5(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 080. 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 (P221849) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
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.