Position in chronology
TCBI 2/1, 35
About this tablet
A small Early Dynastic accounting tablet, probably from Zabalam in southern Iraq, listing measured allotments of flour handed out to nine or ten named individuals. Most of the recipients are women — several names begin with nin-, a common element in women's names — which fits the picture of a household or temple workshop staffed largely by female personnel. It is ordinary institutional bookkeeping: a scribe recording who got how much grain, in descending order of quantity, roughly 4,500 years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A flour distribution list. Nin-mu-dib received the largest share, 3 barig; Gan-saman and Nin-šešda got 2 barig each; Maš-tur appears twice, once with the amount broken away and once for 1 barig 2 ban2. Nin-KA, Za-mu, Nin-abba and Sag-li each received 1 barig, and E-ta-e, last on the list, received 4 ban2 — the smallest ration recorded here.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3 barig of flour (gur measure) — Nin-mu-dib; 2 barig — Gan-samanx; [x] — Maš-tur; 2 barig — Nin-šeš-da; 1 barig 2 ban2 — Maš-tur; 1 barig — Nin-KA; 1 barig — Za-mu; 1 barig — Nin-ab-ba; 1 barig — Sag-li; 4 ban2 — E-ta-e.
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
3(barig@c) zi3 gur nin-mu-dib 2(barig@c) gan-samanx(|SZE.NUN.SZE3.BU|) [x] masz-tur 2(barig@c) nin-szesz-da# 1(barig@c) 2(ban2) masz-tur 1(barig@c) nin-KA 1(barig@c) za3-mu 1(barig@c) nin-ab-ba# 1(barig@c) sag-li 4(ban2@c) e-ta-e11
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC) ?) — TCBI 2/1, 35. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P382042) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-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.