Position in chronology
Nisaba 25, 40
About this tablet
A small, heavily worn administrative tablet from Early Dynastic Ur, now in the British Museum. It records a series of numerical entries — each line pairing a quantity notation (using the archaic N22 and N01 numerical signs) with a commodity or recipient label, several of which are only partially preserved. The recurring element 'nin-' may indicate an institutional title or authority figure such as a high-ranking woman or priestess. This kind of tally tablet is among the earliest surviving bureaucratic records in human history, documenting the routine counting and allocation of goods or personnel at a Sumerian temple or palatial institution around 2500–2600 BCE.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet lists repeated entries, each recording a quantity — apparently around one large unit plus three smaller units — paired with a category or recipient, most of which are now broken away. A few legible labels include what appears to be a title beginning 'nin-' (a high-status woman or official) and a combination of signs that may denote a commodity type or institutional designation. Lower on the tablet the quantities shift to smaller individual counts — 1, 2, 3 — again matched with partly lost labels. The rest of the entries are too damaged to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] 1(N22) 3(N01), x [...] 1(N22) 3(N01), x [...] 1(N22) 3(N01), nin-[...] 1(N22) 3(N01), BU NAM2[?] 1(N22) 3(N01), [...] 1(N22)[3(N01), ...] 2(N01), [...] 3(N01), [...] 1(N01), nin-[...] 2(N01), x-[...] 3(N01), [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] 1(N22) 3(N01)# , x [...] 1(N22) 3(N01)# , x [...] 1(N22) 3(N01)# , nin-[...] 1(N22) 3(N01) , BU NAM2#? 1(N22) 3(N01) , [...] 1(N22)# [3(N01) , ...] 2(N01)# , [...] 3(N01)# , [...] 1(N01) , nin-[...] 2(N01) , x-[...] 3(N01)# , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — Nisaba 25, 40. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P449027) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.