Position in chronology
Nik 1, 124
About this tablet
This is a small Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Girsu (ancient Tello), part of the Nikolski (Nik 1) archive now in the Hermitage Museum. It records three separate disbursements of barley — grain drawn from a standing store, grain issued at the Emeszida temple/storehouse, and grain earmarked as donkey fodder — each handled by an official named Inim-Enlil and issued to named individuals (En-ne the fuller, and a man named Ames). Tablets like this, written around 2400 BCE, are the everyday bookkeeping of a large temple household, tracking exactly how much grain left the granary, to whom, and for what purpose.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This record logs three grain transactions handled by an official named Inim-Enlil. First, 5 gur and 2 ul of barley from current stock were weighed out — the recipients being En-ne, a fuller (cloth-finisher), and a plowman associated with Inim-Enlil. Second, 3 barig and 2 ban2 of barley were weighed out by Inim-Enlil at the Emeszida (a temple storehouse) to a man named Ames. Third, 5 gur, 1 barig, and 1 ban2 of barley — set aside as fodder for donkeys — were likewise weighed out by Inim-Enlil to Ames. In short: a temple official is recorded issuing three separate lots of barley, for a craftsman, for a named individual via a temple storehouse, and for animal feed.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine5 gur, 2 ul of barley, standing (i.e. current-stock) barley — En-ne, the fuller, (and) Inim-Enlil, the plowman — he weighed it out to him. 3 barig, 2 ban2 barley — Inim-Enlil, in the Emeszida, to Ames — he weighed it out to him. 5 gur, 1 barig, 1 ban2 barley, donkey fodder (consumed by donkeys) — Inim-Enlil, to Ames — he weighed it out to him.
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
5(asz@c) sze gub-ba gur 2(disz@t) UL en-ne2 tug2-du8 inim-en-lil2 engar-ra e-na-ag2 3(barig@c) 2(ban2@c) sze inim-en-lil2 e2-mes-zi-da-ka a-mes-ra e-na-ag2 5(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 1(ban2@c) sze ansze gu7 inim-en-lil2 a-mes-ra e-na-ag2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 124. 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 (P221893) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.