Position in chronology
Nisaba 25, 54
About this tablet
A small Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar, southern Iraq), most likely dating to around 2500–2350 BCE. It records the disbursement of food rations — crushed emmer wheat and bread — on specific occasions, including a festival day and what appears to be a new-moon day. Entries of this type tracked institutional food allocations to named individuals or worker categories under temple or palace administration. The tablet is notable for its use of early proto-cuneiform-style numerical notations alongside phonetic signs, reflecting a transitional phase in early Mesopotamian writing.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records a series of food allocations: one unit of crushed emmer wheat (noted as festival-day bread rations) is disbursed, followed by several individual entries — one each for persons or categories designated AB SAR, TI SUR, and others — each receiving a measured ration that is then 'returned' or accounted for against a storage tally. On the new-moon day, another ration of bread is issued to 'UR.' The final summary lines record two larger units under the same accounting category. The rest of the entries are too damaged or abbreviated to read with certainty.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 (unit), [commodity:] emmer wheat, crushed — |NINDA2xŠIM| — On the day of the festival, food-ration given: bread. 1 (unit), AB SAR, release/disbursement; AN |GANxHI|, mouth/ration returned. 1 (unit), TI SUR A AN |GANxHI|, mouth/ration returned. 1 (unit), [mouth/]ration returned, AN |GANxHI|[...] On the day of the new moon(?), TI, mouth/ration of UR, food-ration given: bread. 2 (larger units), AN |GANxHI|[...] returned[!] [Mouth/]ration(?) consumed, AN |GANxHI|[!]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(N01@f) , |NINDA2xSZIM| ziz2 gaz2 u4 ezem gu7 szum2 ninda 1(N01@f) , AB SAR DU8 AN |GANxHI| KA GUR 1(N01@f) , TI SUR A AN |GANxHI| KA GUR 1(N01@f) , KA# GUR AN |GANxHI|# u4 nannax(|SZESZ.NA|)# TI KA UR gu7 szum2 ninda 2(N14@f) , AN |GANxHI|# GUR#! KA#? gu7 AN |GANxHI|#!
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — Nisaba 25, 54. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P449041) — 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.