Position in chronology
UET 2, 0021
About this tablet
A small, heavily worn administrative tablet from Ur, dating to the Early Dynastic period (roughly 2900–2350 BCE). It records numerical quantities — likely of commodities such as grain, livestock, or personnel categories — against abbreviated sign labels in the proto-cuneiform tradition. The tablet is too damaged and fragmentary for a full reading, but its format is typical of institutional bookkeeping: quantities on the left, commodity or category labels on the right. This kind of tablet is among the very earliest examples of systematic record-keeping at one of ancient Mesopotamia's great urban centers.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet lists four entries, each pairing a large number with a commodity or category tag. The first entry records 486 [units] of something classified as 'KAL' (strong/precious quality) and 'GU' — the rest of the line is broken. The second gives 240 units under 'GU BU,' with the remainder lost. The third records 268 units marked 'TUR' (small or junior grade), again with the end missing. The fourth, the most complete, gives a total in the range of 800-plus with 55 additional units, classified under a 'ŠE₃ AN GU₂ GU' heading — possibly barley-related or grain-fattened goods. Much of the detail is too damaged to recover.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine4(N34) 4(N14) 6(N01) [...] , KAL~b2 GU [...] 2(N34) 4(N14) , GU BU~a [...] 2(N34) 2(N14) 8(N01) , TUR [...] 8(N34) [...] 5(N14) 5(N01) , ŠE₃ AN GU₂ GU
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
4(N34@f) 4(N14@f) 6(N01@f) [...] , KAL~b2 GU# [...] 2(N34@f) 4(N14@f) , GU# BU~a# X [...] 2(N34@f)# 2(N14@f) 8(N01@f) , TUR# [...] 8(N34@f)# [...] 5(N14@f)# 5(N01@f) , SZE3# AN GU2 GU
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0021. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P005594) — 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.
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.