Position in chronology
Nik 1, 113
About this tablet
This is a small administrative tablet from Girsu (ancient Lagash province), roughly 2400 BCE, recording how much barley was paid out to cover the interest owed on silver loans. Three named individuals — a courier, a farmer/overseer, and a leatherworker — each received a set quantity of barley in place of a silver interest payment, and the totals are tallied at the end under the responsibility of an official named Inim-Enlila-andab. Tablets like this show how Early Dynastic temple or institutional households used grain as a substitute currency to settle silver-denominated debts, and how ordinary craftsmen and laborers were tied into a wider credit economy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The account records a total of 3 gur, 1 barig, and 2 ban of barley on hand, measured by the standard gur. From this stock, barley was paid out to cover interest owed on silver: 2 barig went to a man named Enki, a courier; 3 barig went to E-ida-diri, a farmer serving as overseer; and 1 full gur went to Ur-mud, a leatherworker. Altogether these payments and the remaining stock came to 5 gur, 2 barig, 2 ban of barley on deposit. The record was closed out under the official Inim-Enlila-andab, with a final tally notation of 5.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3 gur 1 barig 2 ban2 barley, by the main (gur-saggal) measure — barley on deposit (standing barley). 2 barig barley — the interest on silver was measured out — (to) Enki, the courier. 3 barig barley — the interest on silver was measured out — (to) E-ida-diri, the farmer, the overseer. 1 gur barley — the interest on silver was measured out — (to) Ur-mud, the leatherworker. Total: 5 gur 2 barig 2 ban2, by the main (gur-saggal) measure, barley on deposit (standing barley). Inim-Enlila-andab, 5 (tally-mark/account notation).
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
3(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 2(ban2@c) sze gur saggal sze gub-ba 2(barig@c) sze ku3 masz-ba i3-su3 en-ki gab2-kas4 3(barig@c) sze ku3 masz-ba i3-su3 e2 i7-da diri engar nu-banda3 1(asz@c) sze ku3 masz-ba i3-su3 ur2-mud aszgab szu-nigin2 5(asz@c) 2(barig@c) 2(ban2@c) gur saggal sze gub-ba inim-en-lil2-la2-an-dab5 5(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 113. 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 (P221882) — 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.