Position in chronology
UET 2, 0086
About this tablet
An early Dynastic administrative tablet from Ur (southern Iraq), dating to roughly 2900–2500 BCE, recording quantities of calves, barley, and associated commodities — possibly rations or allocations — in connection with a courtyard or storage compound. The tablet uses archaic proto-cuneiform and early cuneiform signs, typical of the earliest literate bureaucracies of ancient Mesopotamia. The notation style — numerals followed by commodity signs — is the standard bookkeeping format of temple or palace storehouses of this period. Though fragmentary, it offers a glimpse into the meticulous accounting that underpinned the world's first urban institutions at one of Mesopotamia's most important ancient cities.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet records several allocations, though the opening lines are broken. One entry logs a quantity (1 large unit) associated with URI3+IB vessels and the 'land' sign (KALAM), suggesting institutional goods. Eight units of calves are recorded against a courtyard or storage area. A further broken entry mentions a vessel type (DUG with HI) and calves again. The final legible entry records barley as a ration or allocation. Much of the tablet is damaged or missing, and the surviving entries represent only a partial account.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] [...] 1(N14) [...] [...] [...] PA~a SI URI5 1(N45) [vessels?] URI3~a+IB~a TI KALAM~a 8(N14) calves — courtyard/storage area [...] [vessel type] DUG~axHI [broken] — calves [...] barley — ration/allocation
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] 1(N14) [...] , [...] , PA~a SI URI5 1(N45) , GISZ |URI3~a+IB~a| TI KALAM~a 8(N14) , AMAR KISAL~b1 [...] , [...] |DUG~axHI|# AMAR# , SZE~a GAR
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0086. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P005661) — 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.