Position in chronology
Nik 1, 233
About this tablet
This is a small Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Girsu (ancient Tello) recording a very large consignment of animal hides — 940 sheep hides and 143 goat/kid hides — moving through the city ruler's (ensi2's) household under the authority of an overseer named Ur-igi. Hides of this kind were raw material for leatherworkers, harness-makers, and military equipment in the redistributive economy of the Lagash state. Its small, thick 'pillow' shape and terse notation are typical of the bureaucratic account tablets produced by scribes managing palace and temple resources in southern Mesopotamia around the mid-3rd millennium BCE.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is an inventory entry: 940 sheep hides and 143 goat hides, credited to the city ruler and originating from (or routed through) a place called Iri-ku. An official named Ur-igi, holding the title of overseer, is recorded as giving or receiving them on the ruler's behalf. The next few signs are too damaged to read. The record closes by noting that the transaction was carried out, with a final numeral notation (6) that likely served as a checking or sealing mark.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(600) 5(60) 4(10) hides of sheep [= 940 sheep hides], 2(60) 2(10) 3 hides of kid-goat [= 143 goat hides], the ruler (ensi2), from Iri-ku ("Holy/Silver City"), Ur-igi, the overseer, gave to him (?). [...] ... [...] he performed (the transaction). 6 (notation-sign |ASZxDISZ@t|)
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(gesz'u@c) 5(gesz2@c) 4(u@c) kusz udu 2(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) 3(asz@c) kusz masz ensi2-ke4 iri ku3-ta ur-igi nu-banda3 mu-na-[szum2?] [x x x] x A [x x] e-ak 6(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 233. 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 (P222002) — 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.