Position in chronology
UET 2, 0073
About this tablet
A small Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Ur — one of the oldest cities in the world — recording quantities of grain and related commodities apparently connected to the estate or temple of Nanna, the moon-god who was Ur's patron deity. The tablet lists numerical quantities alongside commodity signs for barley or flour, a processing notation, and a title meaning 'lady' or high-ranking woman, before closing with what appears to be a field-unit designation tied to Nanna's institution. It is the kind of routine accounting record that kept ancient temple economies running, tracking who received what and from which estate. Though fragmentary and damaged, it offers a glimpse into the daily bookkeeping of one of Mesopotamia's great religious institutions around 2600–2400 BCE.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The opening lines are too damaged to read. What follows records a quantity of barley or flour alongside a NI~b commodity, then a larger entry: 1(N34@f) and 6(N14@f) units of barley, noted as processed or prepared. A further quantity of 1(N36@f) and 1(N19@f) units of ASZ2 (a commodity type) is listed. The record then notes a 'lady' or high-ranking woman, and closes with an entry for a field-unit belonging to the Nanna temple estate.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , [...] , barley(?) / flour-ration(?) , NI~b / flour-ration 1(N34@f) 6(N14@f) , barley , processed/made 1(N36@f) 1(N19@f) , ASZ2 , NIN (lady/priestess) , field(-unit) of Nanna
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] , SZE~a#? ZI~a#? , NI~b ZI~a 1(N34@f) 6(N14@f) , SZE~a , AK~a 1(N36@f) 1(N19@f) , ASZ2 , NIN , GAN2 NANNA~a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0073. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P005647) — 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.