Position in chronology
TMH 05, 027
About this tablet
A small personnel roster from the city of Nippur in southern Iraq, written in the Early Dynastic period (c. 2500–2350 BCE). It counts groups of women and men — workers assigned under named overseers such as Aba-Enlil, son of Ur-Ninazu, and Enlil-sipa — and records that some were returned and a fisherman named Igi-mu was sent out. Such tallies are among the earliest surviving records of how a temple or household administration kept track of its labour force.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Three women, counted as the second group; eight men, assigned to the second group; ten people under Aba-Enlil, son of Ur-Ninazu; Enlil-sipa's people [the next line is damaged]. Those belonging to the ka-ba assignment he returned. One fisherman, Igi-mu, he sent out. Three people are under Enlil-sipa. The back of the tablet is blank.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse, column i) 3 women — it is the second (group?) ; 8 men — for the 2nd(?) (group) ; 10 persons: Aba-Enlil, son of Ur-Ninazu; [En]lil-sipa (column ii) [...] USZ(?) of the ka-ba (allotment? place?) he returned (them). 1 fisherman: Igi-mu he brought/took out (?). 3 persons: Enlil-sipa. (reverse uninscribed)
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
3(asz@c) munus 2(asz@c)-sag-kam 8(asz@c) nita 2(disz@t)#?-kam-sze3 1(u@c) lu2 a-ba-en-lil2 dumu# ur-nin-a-zu5 [en]-lil2#-sipa [...] USZ ka-ba-ke4 i3-ta-gur 1(asz@c) szu-ku6 igi-mu i3-ta-du 3(asz@c) lu2 en-lil2-sipa
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 027. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Hilprecht Collection, University of Jena, Germany (P020441) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-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.