Position in chronology
Nik 1, 118
About this tablet
This small clay tablet from Girsu (modern Tello), dated to the Early Dynastic period, is a barley account from a temple or estate archive. It records grain 'outstanding' — barley owed or booked to individual account-holders — together with the amount of interest-bearing silver-equivalent barley that had already been repaid on each account. Three named men (Ur-igi son of En-kisal-si, Il, and Gal-UN) each have an entry, followed by a grand total and the name of the official, Inim-Enlila-andab, who closed the record. Such texts are the routine bookkeeping of Sumerian grain-lending institutions nearly 4,500 years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is a grain ledger. It opens with an entry of 7 gur 2 barig of barley (in the standard 'head' measure) listed as outstanding on someone's account, plus a note that 1 gur of barley — corresponding interest owed in silver terms — has already been repaid. The scribe then totals a second account: 8 gur 1 barig 2 ban of barley outstanding, with 1 gur repaid as interest, belonging to a man named Ur-igi, son of En-kisal-si. A third account follows: 3 gur 1 barig 2 ban outstanding, with 2 barig repaid as interest, credited to two men, Il and Gal-UN. Finally the tablet gives a grand total of 21 gur 2 barig 4 ban of barley still outstanding, and closes with the name of the responsible official, Inim-Enlila-andab, along with a numeral notation (5) whose exact function is unclear.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine7 gur 2 barig barley, gur-saggal (standard/‘head’ measure) — barley outstanding (gub-ba). 1 gur barley — its interest-silver (maš-ba) was repaid (i₃-su₃). Its total (gu₂-bi): 8 gur 1 barig 2 ban₂ barley outstanding. 1 gur barley — its interest-silver was repaid. Ur-igi, son of En-kisal-si. 3 gur 1 barig 2 ban₂ barley outstanding. 2 barig barley — its interest-silver was repaid. Il, Gal-UN. Total: 21 gur 2 barig 4 ban₂ barley, gur-saggal (standard measure) — barley outstanding. Inim-Enlila-andab, 5 (unit-marker/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
7(asz@c) 2(barig@c) sze gur saggal sze gub-ba 1(asz@c) sze ku3 masz-ba i3-su3 gu2-bi 8(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 2(ban2@c) sze gub-ba 1(asz@c) sze ku3 masz-ba i3-su3 ur-igi dumu en-kisal-si 3(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 2(ban2@c) sze gub-ba 2(barig@c) sze ku3 masz-ba i3-su3 il2 gal-UN szu-nigin2 2(u@c) 1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) 4(ban2@c) sze 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, 118. 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 (P221887) — 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.