Position in chronology
Nik 1, 136
About this tablet
This is a small Early Dynastic (Presargonic) administrative account from Girsu, part of the Nikolski I archive tied to the temple economy of Lagash, roughly 24th century BCE. It records disbursements of dabin — a coarse or semi-processed barley flour — in ban-measures (a dry capacity unit) to named individuals, each entry naming a recipient and an overseeing official called a maškim ('commissioner'). The final entry notes flour drawn from a storehouse and carried off by 'the cook,' hinting this flour was destined for food preparation within a temple or palace household. Texts like this are the bureaucratic bedrock of one of the world's earliest documented economies.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a flour-ration ledger. One entry: 1 ban of coarse flour was issued — the record notes an allotment and thirty units released or measured out — to a man named Ur-ninsaga, with an official named as the responsible overseer for the transaction. A second, similar entry follows: 2 ban of flour issued under the same kind of formula, this time apparently for someone whose name is now broken away but seems to include 'Ur-nin-.' The next line records another ban of flour but the text breaks off before we learn where it went. Finally, 3 ban of flour was drawn from the storehouse, and the cook carried it off — presumably for food preparation in a temple or household kitchen.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 ban dabin-flour (fine flour) — allotted; 30 (units) released/measured out (ba-an-ne2 ... du8-am6). Ur-ninsaga — its commissioner (maškim) is (named, but not further specified here). 2 ban dabin-flour — allotted; 30 (units) released/measured out (ba-an-ne2 ... du8-am6). [...] Ur-nin-[PA] (name broken) — 1 ban dabin-flour [...] (break) 3 ban dabin-flour, (from) the storehouse (é-níg-gur11-ra), from the house — the cook brought (it) (ba-de6).
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(ban2@c) dabin ba-an-ne2 3(u) du8-am6 ur-nin-sag3 maszkim-bi 2(ban2@c) dabin ba-an-ne2 3(u) du8-am6 [x x ur-]nin-[PA] 1(ban2@c) dabin [...] 3(ban2@c) dabin e2-nig2#-gur11-ra e-ta muhaldim ba#-de6
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 136. 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 (P221905) — 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.