Position in chronology
TMH 05, 091
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic administrative account from Nippur, some 4,500 years old, tallying goods moving into the palace: hundreds of goats and lambs, bundles of rushes, linen thread by weight, and finished garments. The entries pass 'from the scribe' — that is, out of a record-keeping office — into palace hands, showing how early Mesopotamian bureaucracy tracked both livestock and textiles in a single ledger. It is a snapshot of the palace economy at one of Sumer's great religious centers.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a delivery record for the palace. It lists 760 goats under someone called Kun-..., another 150 goats and lambs handled by Dada, 150 suckling goats, and a batch of suckling lambs. Alongside the animals come 60 loads of rushes, 60 minas (about 30 kilograms) of linen thread, 40 aktum-garments, and 40 linen garments. Everything was transferred out of the scribe's office and delivered to the palace.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine760 goats — kun-... ; 150 goats (and) lambs — Dada; 150 suckling goats; suckling lambs; 60 loads of rushes; 60 minas of linen thread; 40 aktum-garments; 40 linen garments. From (the office of) the scribe; delivered (to) the palace.
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(gesz'u@c) 2(gesz2@c) 4(u@c) masz2 kun-x 2(gesz2@c) 3(u@c) masz2 sila4 da-da 2(gesz2@c) 3(u@c) masz2 nag sila4 nag 1(gesz2@c) ninni5 gu2 1(gesz2@c) gu-gada ma-na 4(u@c) tug2 aktum 4(u@c) gada tug2 ki dub-sar-ta e2-gal an-DU
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 091. 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 (P020505) — 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.