Position in chronology
Nik 1, 142
About this tablet
This is a small Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Girsu (ancient Lagash territory, modern Tello), part of the large Nik 1 archive of institutional household accounts from around the 24th century BCE. It records three successive rounds of provisions for beer- and bread-making — ground malt (or groats) for fine beer and 'hot' oven-bread — each paired with a barley allotment noted as its bala, or 'exchange' quantity, and each installment explicitly marked as delivered ('1st,' '2nd,' '3rd'). Texts like this are the bookkeeping backbone of Sumerian temple and palace economies: scribes tracked exactly how much grain went into food and drink production, batch by batch, so nothing could go unaccounted for.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This record tracks three rounds of supplies handed over for making beer and bread. First: 1 gur 1 barig of ground malt or groats for fine beer, plus 1 gur 1 barig of hot oven-bread, with 1 barig 4 ban2 of barley charged against the exchange — and this first batch was delivered. Second: 3 barig of the ground malt for fine beer and 1 barig of oven-bread, with 4 ban2 of barley reckoned as the exchange — delivered as the second installment. Third: 3 barig of ground malt for fine beer and 1 barig 2 ban2 of oven-bread, with only 2 ban2 of barley charged — delivered as the third installment. A final, smaller amount, 4 ban2 of ground malt for fine beer, closes out the account, though the tablet seems to end there.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 1 gur, 1 barig of ground malt/groats — fine beer. 2. 1 gur, 1 barig of oven-bread (hot bread). 3. Its exchanged barley: 1 barig, 4 ban2. 4. The 1st (installment) was delivered. 5. 3 barig of ground malt/groats — fine beer. 6. 1 barig of oven-bread. 7. Its exchanged barley: 4 ban2. 8. The 2nd (installment) was delivered. 9. 3 barig of ground malt/groats — fine beer. 10. 1 barig, 2 ban2 of oven-bread. 11. Its exchanged barley: 2 ban2. 12. The 3rd (installment) was delivered. 13. 4 ban2 of ground malt/groats — fine beer.
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(asz@c) 1(barig@c) nig2-ar3-ra kas sig15 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) ninda kum4-ma sze bala-bi 1(barig@c) 4(ban2@c) 1(disz@t) de6-a-am6 3(barig@c) nig2-ar3-ra kas sig15 1(barig@c) ninda kum4-ma sze bala-bi 4(ban2@c) 2(disz@t)-kam-ma de6-a-am6 3(barig@c) nig2-ar3-ra kas sig15 1(barig@c) 2(ban2) ninda kum4-ma sze bala-bi 2(ban2@c) 3(disz@t)-kam-ma de6-a-am6 4(ban2@c) nig2-ar3-ra kas sig15
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 142. 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 (P221911) — 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.