Position in chronology
Nik 1, 313
About this tablet
This is a small Presargonic (Early Dynastic IIIb) legal-administrative tablet from Girsu, part of the well-known Nikolski (Nik 1) archive now in the Hermitage Museum. It records debts — quantities of silver and a gazelle — charged 'to the account' of named individuals, one transaction involving people who had come from Elam, and closes with a formal witness clause. Texts like this show how early Sumerian institutions tracked personal debt obligations and formalized them before witnesses, more than four thousand years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The record opens with an amount of about 12 shekels of silver, but the next line is broken and lost. It then lists another sum — two thirds of a mina less two shekels of silver — owed in connection with Ur-era and Utu-lu-saga, who had traveled from Elam; this debt was charged to someone's account. A further entry adds one gazelle, linked to Besuga and Lala of the temple household of the goddess Ninmar, likewise charged to an account. The document ends by naming the people present as witnesses to these transactions.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine10(u@c) 2(asz@c)? gin2 ku3 [12(?) shekels of silver] (break) 2/3 (mina) minus 2 shekels of silver — Ur-era (and) Utu-lu-saga, from Elam had come; (this) was placed upon his account (as debt). Lugal-uma: 1 gazelle — Besuga (and) Lala, (of) the house of Ninmar, (this) was placed upon his account (as debt). These are the witnesses to this matter.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(u@c) 2(asz@c)? gin2 ku3 [...] 2/3(asz@c) la2 2(asz@c) gin2 ku3 ur-e2-ra utu-lu2-sa6-ga elam-ta e-gen-na-a gu2-na e-ne2-gar lugal-u3-ma 1(asz@c) masz-da3 be2-su-ga2 la-la e2 nin-mar-ka gu2-na e-ne2-gar lu2 ki inim-ma-bi-me
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 313. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P225775) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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