Position in chronology
Nik 1, 249
About this tablet
This is a small Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Girsu (modern Tello), part of the archive published as Nik 1, 249, now in the State Hermitage Museum. It records a tally of cattle hides — some from large oxen, others specified by age (two and three years) — handed over in a particular month to an official named Ur-igi-ama, who held the title 'overseer' (nu-banda3), with a person named Šul-bira as the one who gave them. Tablets like this belonged to the vast institutional bookkeeping of the temple household of the goddess Bau at Girsu, tracking livestock products such as hides for use in leatherworking, harness-making, or ritual supply.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This receipt records a small delivery of ox hides: two hides from full-grown oxen, one hide from a three-year-old ox, and two hides from two-year-old oxen. The transaction is dated to the month called 'Piling-up-of-the-granary.' A man named Šul-bira handed these hides over to Ur-igi-ama, who held the rank of overseer. The tablet closes with a total notation, likely summarizing the count of hides recorded above.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 hides of large oxen, 1 hide of an ox, 3 years old, 2 hides of oxen, 2 years old. Month: "Piling-up-of-the-granary" (iti guru7-dub-da). To Ur-igi-ama, the overseer (nu-banda3) — Šul-bira gave (it) to him. 3 (total, in compound 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
2(asz@c) kusz gu4 gal-gal 1(asz@c) kusz gu4 mu 3(disz@t) 2(asz@c) kusz gu4 mu 2(disz@t) iti guru7-dub-da ur-igi-ama-sze3 nu-banda3 SZUL-bi2-ra e-na-szum2 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 249. 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 (P222018) — 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.