Position in chronology
OIP 014, 063
About this tablet
This is a small, palm-sized Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Adab (modern Bismaya), of the compact 'pillow' shape typical of the period. It records a short list of named individuals, each apparently allotted a single unit of something, closing with the occupational label 'smith' (simug) — likely marking these men as metalworkers receiving rations, tools, or work-assignments from a local household or temple administration. Such tiny tablets were everyday bookkeeping, not literature: a scribe's quick note to track people and goods in a workshop economy nearly 4,500 years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This little clay chit lists five people, each credited with one unit of something — the commodity itself isn't specified in what survives. The names are Ba-anše (very uncertain, possibly with a following number 2), Adda-tur, Gan-ki, Usar-gindu, and Šu-Ištaran. The last line, standing alone, labels the group as 'smiths' — suggesting this was a tally connected to metalworkers, perhaps rations issued to them or a note of their assignment. It's the kind of quick, functional bookkeeping a scribe would jot down to keep track of workshop personnel.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(aš) — Ba-anše(?) 2(?) 1(aš) — Adda-tur 1(aš) — Gan-ki 1(aš) — Usar-gindu 1(aš) — Šu-Ištaran(?) smith(s)
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(asz@c) ba?-ansze#? 2(asz@c)#? 1(asz@c) ad-da-tur 1(asz@c) gan-ki 1(asz@c) usarx(|LALxKU|)#-gin7-du10 1(asz@c) szu-isztaran#? simug
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — OIP 014, 063. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P222250) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
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.