Position in chronology
TMH 05, 064
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic field-lease record from Nippur, probably in the 24th century BCE. It lists parcels of farmland — each about 6½ to 13 hectares — assigned to named men, including a felt-worker named Ur-Enlil, and notes that the land belongs to an overseer's holding and has been let out for cultivation by a man named La-gipum. It is an early glimpse of how institutional land was parcelled out to individual tenants in southern Mesopotamia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Here is who got which field. Lugal-šude receives 1 bur and 1 eše of land at Iri-sagrig. Bad-KU gets 1 bur and 1 eše. Ur-Enlil the felt-worker gets 1 bur and 1 eše. Ur-ur gets 1 bur and 1 eše, and Šubur gets 2 bur. All of this is land belonging to the overseer. After a damaged line mentioning a town, the record closes: La-gipum handed these plots over to them as a lease for ploughing.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 bur 1 eše of field — Lugal-šude; (at/of) Iri-sagrig. 1 bur 1 eše — Bad-KU. 1 bur 1 eše of field — Ur-Enlil, the felt-worker. 1 bur 1 eše — Ur-ur. 2 bur — Šubur-[...]. It is field of the overseer (nu-banda). [...] ... city ... La-gipum for rental (ploughing-lease) gave (it) to them.
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
1(bur3@c) 1(esze3@c) GAN2 lugal-szu12-de3 iri-sa12-rig7 1(bur3@c) 1(esze3@c) bad3-KU 1(bur3@c) 1(esze3@c) GAN2 ur-en-lil2 tug2-du8 1(bur3@c) 1(esze3@c) ur-ur 2(bur3@c) szubur-[x] GAN2 nu-banda3-kam [x] x iri a la-gi-pum apin-la2-sze3 mu-ne-szum2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 064. 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 (P020478) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-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.