Position in chronology
TMH 05, 042
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Nippur (c. 2500 BCE) recording regular allotments of grain to named individuals — several of them women, two with a child who receives a smaller portion. The large totals at the end sit under two further names, Nin-hili and Nin-ku, and the closing word 'sa-dug' labels the whole as standing, recurring provisions rather than a one-off payment. It is a glimpse of how an institution at Nippur fed its dependents, household by household, a thousand years before Hammurabi.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Ur-Enlil gets 2 barig of grain, and so does Ur-Šubur. The amounts for AN-nini and Lugal-ennu are broken off. One of her children gets 2 ban. Nin-ena gets 1 barig, and one of her children gets 2 ban. Namma gets 1 barig, and Nin-...-a (name partly damaged) gets 1 barig. Then two big figures: 61 under Nin-hili and 122 under Nin-ku. The whole list is labelled as the regular provisions.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) 2 barig: Ur-Enlil. 2 barig: Ur-Šubur. [x]: AN-nini. [x]: Lugal-ennu. 1 child of hers: 2 ban. 1 barig: Nin-ena. 1 child of hers: 2 ban. 1 barig: Namma. 1 barig: Nin-[x]-a. (reverse) 61: Nin-hili. 122: Nin-ku. Regular provisions (sa-dug).
Our translation engine — Fable 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
2(barig@c) ur-en-lil2 2(barig@c) ur-szubur [x] AN-ni2-ni [x] lugal-en-nu 1(asz@c) dumu-ni 2(ban2@c) 1(barig@c) nin-e2-na 1(asz@c) dumu-ni 2(ban2@c) 1(barig@c) nam-ma 1(barig@c) nin-x-a 1(gesz2@c) 1(asz@c) nin-hi-li 2(gesz2@c) 2(asz@c) nin-ku4 sa2-du11
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 042. 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 (P020456) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-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.