Position in chronology
UET 2, 0133
About this tablet
A small, heavily damaged proto-cuneiform administrative tablet from Ur, dating to the Early Dynastic period (roughly 2900–2350 BCE). It records quantities of commodities or allocations against institutional or commodity labels, including what appear to be containers (DUG~a, 'vessel/jar'), quality or personnel designations (KAL~b2), rations or bread (GAR), and a reference to ABZU — possibly a storehouse or institutional label rather than the cosmic underground waters of later mythology. The surviving figures are numerical notations in the archaic sexagesimal system. The tablet is too fragmentary to reconstruct a complete transaction, but it belongs to the earliest stratum of written record-keeping in southern Mesopotamia — bureaucratic accounting nearly at the very dawn of literacy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
What survives of this record lists several commodity entries with quantities: one large unit of something (1 N14), then a larger tally (1 N19 + 2 N04) associated with an item near a reference to the ABZU — perhaps a specific storehouse or institutional category. Two large units (2 N19) are assigned to a 'KAL~b2' designation, and another batch (1 N19 + 2 N04) is linked to a type of jar or vessel (DUG~a). A separate entry notes AN AN AMAR — possibly 'divine/celestial young animal' or a category heading — and a final entry of two large units (2 N14) is assigned to KAL~b2 alongside a ration or bread allocation (GAR). Much of the tablet is broken away; the rest is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , [...] [...] , [...] X [...] , [...] X [...] 1(N14) , [...] 1(N19) 2(N04) , X [...] , SI ABZU# [...] 2(N19) , KAL~b2 [...] 1(N19) 2(N04) , DUG~a# [...] , AN AN AMAR 2(N14)# , KAL~b2 GAR
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] , [...] [...] , [...] X [...] , [...] X [...] 1(N14) , [...] 1(N19) 2(N04) , X [...] , SI ABZU# [...] 2(N19) , KAL~b2 [...] 1(N19) 2(N04) , DUG~a# [...] , AN AN AMAR 2(N14)# , KAL~b2 GAR
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0133. 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 (P005713) — 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.