Position in chronology
Nik 1, 304
About this tablet
This is an Early Dynastic IIIb administrative tablet from Girsu (part of the Nikolski I corpus, associated with the palace/temple archives of the Lagash state), recording an inventory of costly goods: bronze vessels or implements — including a type explicitly called a 'Dilmun-boat' vessel, pointing to the famous long-distance trade with the Persian Gulf island of Dilmun (modern Bahrain) — followed by a dozen or so named categories of fine textiles and garments. Texts like this tracked the movement of prestige goods (metal and cloth) through the palace household, likely for redistribution, dowry, gift-exchange, or temple provisioning. The tablet is broken at the end, so its full accounting and any closing summary or personal names are lost.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records a stocktaking of valuable goods. On the metal side: twelve bronze items of one type, twelve more bronze items called 'hand-type,' six bronze vessels described as 'Dilmun boats' (a nod to trade with the Gulf island of Dilmun), and three bronze strainers or basins. On the textile side: twelve garments of one kind, about twelve fine thin cloths, four long cloths, nine pieces of another cloth type, one more of a different kind, two garments of uncertain type, six garments called 'nig-bar-ba,' and ten thin 'bar-dul' garments. The list then breaks off — a couple more entries are visible but too damaged to read, ending mid-list.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine12 (units of) copper/bronze — zabar3-|KAxX|-zi (type) 12 (units of) copper/bronze — šu ("hand"-type) 6 (units of) copper/bronze — Dilmun-boat (type) 3 (units of) copper/bronze — sim-zabar3 (strainer/vessel type) 12 garments — šu-du8-ur3 12(?) garments — nig2-lam2, thin/fine 4 garments — nig2-lam2, long 9 (10 minus 1) — a-dab6 (cloth/garment) 1 — u3-la2 (garment) 2 garments — kusz2(?) 6 garments — nig2-bar-ba 10 garments — bar-dul5, thin (break) [...] [...]-la2 [...]-gar
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
1(u@c) 2(asz@c) uruda zabar3-|KAxX|-zi 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) uruda zabar3 szu 6(asz@c) uruda zabar3 ma2 dilmun 3(asz@c) uruda sim-zabar3 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) tug2 szu-du8-ur3 1(u@c) 2(asz@c)? tug2 nig2-lam2 sal-la 4(asz@c) tug2 nig2-lam2 gid2-da 1(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) a-dab6 1(asz@c) u3-la2 2(asz@c) tug2 kusz2!? 6(asz@c) tug2 nig2-bar-ba 1(u@c) tug2 bar-dul5 [sal]-la [...] [x x x]-la2 [x x x]-gar
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 304. 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 (P222073) — 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.