Position in chronology
UET 2, 0171a
About this tablet
A small, heavily worn Early Dynastic tablet from Ur — one of the oldest writing-bearing objects in the world — likely a lexical or administrative list recording quantities of commodities, animal categories, or personnel groupings. It belongs to the tradition of proto-cuneiform accounting documents from southern Mesopotamia, in which numerical notations are paired with pictographic signs to track goods or people. The signs include what appear to be references to sheep, a category marker possibly relating to tablets or scribes, and several classifiers whose exact meanings remain contested by scholars. Tablets like this are among the very earliest written records humanity possesses, and even fragmentary examples help map the emergence of writing as an administrative technology.
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 survives records a series of counted items: 10 units of [KUN — a tail or end category?]; 13 units under a heading involving AN, SAG, and two uncertain classifiers; 10 units of something described as a statue or figure associated with a mountain and a directional marker; 2 units linked to DA and DUB (possibly a tablet or scribal category); 1 unit of sheep, sheep; 13 units of HI and PA (a mixed or qualified overseer category); 2 units of TUR and UR (junior or small, associated with a dog or guard category). The final lines are lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] , [...] [...] , [...] 1(N14) , KUN 1(N14) 3(N01) , AN SAG AK~a ME~a 1(N14) , ALAN~a KUR~b TA~f 2(N22) , DA~a DUB~a 1(N22) , UDU~a UDU~a 1(N22) 3(N01) , HI PA~a 2(N22) , TUR UR~a [...] , [...]
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) , KUN 1(N14) 3(N01) , AN SAG AK~a ME~a 1(N14) , ALAN~a KUR~b TA~f 2(N22) , DA~a#? DUB~a# 1(N22) , UDU~a UDU~a 1(N22) 3(N01) , HI PA~a 2(N22)# , TUR UR~a [...] , [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0171a. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P005757) — 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.