Position in chronology
Nisaba 25, 55
About this tablet
A small Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Ur, recording ration or commodity allocations — most likely reed — distributed to a list of named individuals. Each person receives a specified number of units, recorded with numerical notations typical of the period. The names include theophoric elements (Utu, Abzu) suggesting these were working people whose names invoked Sumerian deities. The final line is badly damaged and resists full interpretation, but the overall document is a routine accounting record of the kind kept by temple or palace administrators at Ur around 2500–2400 BCE.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records the distribution of reeds (or another commodity) to several named workers or dependents: Amar-Abzu received 2 units; Utu-ur-sag received 7; Sag-aya-da received 5; Pa-bilga received 9; Šubur-la received 2 (under the heading PA-A); and En-abzu-si received 12 units. A partial entry involving SAG and DA is too broken to read fully. The final line, with its string of sign groups including KA₂, SAL, GIR, and DIM, is too damaged and abbreviated to translate with confidence.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 [units], reed — Amar-Abzu 7 [units] — Utu-ur-sag 5 [units] — Sag-aya-da [...] SAG DA 9 [units] — Pa-bilga 2 [units] — Šubur-la, PA-A 1×10+2 [units] — En-abzu-si [broken line:] x A KA₂ GIR DIM DIM A A KA₂ SAL KA₂
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
2(N01@f)# , gi amar-abzu 7(N01@f) , utu-ur-sag 5(N01@f) , sag#-aya2-da [...] SAG#? DA 9(N01@f) , pa-bilx(|NE.PAP.UET2_377|)-ga 2(N01@f) , szubur!-la PA-A 1(N14@f) 2(N01@f) , en-abzu-si x A KA2 GIR DIM3 DIM3 A A? KA2 SAL KA2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — Nisaba 25, 55. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P449042) — 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.