Position in chronology
TCBI 2/1, 05
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic accounting tablet, probably from the region of Zabalam in southern Iraq, roughly 2500 BCE. It lists parcels of farmland — one identified by the mound (du₆) of Lagaš, another lying beside woodland — each followed by a small figure, together with an amount of barley and the names of the men responsible, among them Šeš-pa'e the plowman. Both the tablet's obverse and reverse are broken away at one side, so about half of every line is missing, but the surviving structure is the familiar Sumerian field-and-personnel ledger: land, yield, and the man who works it.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A land and grain ledger, badly broken. The surviving entries record field plots — one at the mound of Lagaš, one bordering the woodland, others identified only by initials or signs now lost — each followed by a figure of two or three units and the note 'its name/year.' Then comes a household holding, five gur of barley reckoned as the principal amount, and a short list of the men attached to the account: Šeš-pa'e the plowman, NI-NUN-bi, Gu-ni-DU, each credited with one unit. The right-hand portion of every line, and whatever the reverse concluded with, is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] field(?) [...] the mound of Lagaš [...] 3 (units) — its name/year [...] field beside the woodland (da-tir) [...] — its name/year 1 field (unit) DA 2 (units) — its name/year 1 field (unit) [...] 2 (units) — its name/year 1 ENGUR(?) BI, the house(hold) 5 gur of barley, head (capital?) measure 1 (unit): Šeš-pa'e, the plowman [...] 1 (unit): NI-NUN-bi 1 (unit): Gu-ni-DU [...] DU
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
[...] GAN2#? [...] du6 lagasz [...] 3(asz@c) mu-bi# [...] GAN2 da#-tir [...] mu-bi 1(asz@c) GAN2 DA 2(asz@c) mu-bi 1(asz@c) GAN2 [...] 2(asz@c) mu-bi 1(asz@c) ENGUR? BI e2 5(asz@c) sze gur sag 1(asz@c) szesz-pa3 engar# [...] 1(asz@c) NI-NUN-bi# 1(asz@c) gu-ni-DU [...] DU
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC) ?) — TCBI 2/1, 05. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P382058) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-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.