Position in chronology
UET 2, 0094
About this tablet
A small, heavily fragmented administrative tablet from the Early Dynastic period at Ur — one of the earliest phases of Mesopotamian writing, roughly 2900–2600 BCE. It records quantities of commodities or personnel entries using the proto-cuneiform numerical system, with signs that may refer to animals (calves), persons or dependents, and institutional places (such as the Abzu, the sacred underground water associated with temples). The tablet is too broken to reconstruct a continuous transaction, but it fits a class of early Sumerian bookkeeping records that track disbursements or allocations at a temple or palatial institution. Its interest lies in being one of the very earliest layers of written record-keeping in human history, when writing was still tightly bound to accounting rather than narrative.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The surviving lines record a series of small quantity entries — figures like 3 units, or 2 units plus smaller fractions — each paired with a category label: something to do with a field or area measurement alongside a calf; a dais or shrine together with a 'mother' (possibly a senior female figure or a designation for an animal); three units assigned to a 'head' or overseer and a servant; three more connected with the sacred Abzu precinct. A larger tally appears lower down, possibly involving timber. The last readable line mentions a day or date marker and a head-person. Most of the tablet is lost or too damaged to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] field (GAN2), AN, calf (AMAR) [...] dais/shrine (BARA2), mother (AMA) [...] [...] X 1(N22), X basket/container (GA2) X side/rib (DA) 3(N01), head/person (SAG) X dog/servant (UR) 3(N01), horn/fill (SI), mother (AMA), Abzu [...] [...] X [...] [...] 2(N14) 1(N22) 2(N01) [...], timber/wood (GISZ3)? [...] 4(N01), X [...] 1(N22) 3(N01), X [...] [...] 1(N14), day/sun (U4), head/person (SAG) [...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , GAN2 AN# AMAR [...] , BARA2~a# AMA~b [...] , [...] X 1(N22) , X GA2~a1# X DA~a# 3(N01) , SAG# X UR~a 3(N01)# , SI AMA~b ABZU [...] , [...] X [...] , [...] 2(N14) 1(N22) 2(N01) [...] , GISZ3~a#? [...] 4(N01) , X [...] 1(N22) 3(N01) , X [...] [...] 1(N14) , U4 SAG [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0094. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P005669) — 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.