Position in chronology
UET 2, 0071
About this tablet
An early Dynastic administrative tablet from Ur (ancient southern Iraq), probably dating to around 2600–2400 BCE, recording allocations or ration distributions of barley and other commodities against named categories of goods or recipients, including what appear to be references to calves, flour, and possibly weapons or prestige items. The surface is heavily damaged, leaving several entries incomplete or illegible. This kind of tablet represents the day-to-day record-keeping of Ur's temple or palace economy — the ancient equivalent of an inventory or ledger — and is one of the oldest surviving examples of systematic accounting.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The readable entries record a series of commodity allocations, each noting a quantity of high-quality rations or bread (possibly KAL-grade), a 'large' dagger or prestige blade, then one or more portions of barley with associated flour rations, and an entry involving a calf. Several lines are too damaged or broken to read. The last legible lines record a quantity associated with 'horn' or a filling designation, and a reference to a storehouse and another calf. The rest is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] 3 (large units), KAL-quality — GAR (rations/bread) — large (GAL) dagger/sword (GIR2) 1 (large unit) 3 (large units), barley — GAR (rations/bread) — ZI (flour/rations) ZI (flour/rations) NA 1 (large unit) 3 (large units), barley — GAR (rations/bread) — calf (AMAR) [...] [...] 3 (large units)? — AN X [...] [...] — [...] 1 (large unit)? 3 (large units)?, — SI (horn?) [...] — storehouse (E2)? ME? calf (AMAR) —
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] 3(N14@f) , KAL~b2 GAR , GAL~a# GIR2~a# 1(N34@f@t)? 3(N14@f) , SZE~a GAR , ZI~a# ZI~a NA~a 1(N34@f@t) 3(N14@f) , SZE~a GAR , AMAR [...] [...] 3(N14@f)#? , AN X [...] , [...] 1(N34@f@t)? 3(N14@f)#? , SI# [...] , E2~a#? ME~a#? AMAR# ,
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0071. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P005645) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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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.