Position in chronology
UET 2, 0185
About this tablet
This is an Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Ur, now in the British Museum, recording allocations or rations of commodities — primarily bread, barley, and associated goods — distributed across several institutional categories or personnel groups. The entries list quantities in proto-cuneiform numerical notation alongside commodity and title signs, suggesting a ration or disbursement ledger managed by a temple or palace bureaucracy. The final line appears to be a summary or subtotal entry combining several of the commodities mentioned above. Tablets like this are the bookkeeping backbone of ancient Mesopotamian civilization: small clay records that kept track of who got what from the storehouse.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The surviving entries record allocations of bread and barley — in quantities ranging from a handful of units to well over a hundred — distributed to or under the supervision of various institutional categories, including what may be an overseer's share, a 'fresh' (newly processed?) portion, a royal or great official with a blade/weapon designation, a physician or diviner, and a festival allotment linked to calves. One entry may record a daily ration connected with dogs or herders; another mentions a plow team. The final line totals seven units of a combined bread-barley-fresh-interior category. Several lines are broken and the full picture is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] 2(N45) 6(N14), [...] bread (NINDA2 type) 1(N36) 2(N46) 2(N19) 2(N04), — SI, inner/heart (ŠA3) 1(N34) 2(N45) 8(N14) 2(N01), barley — PA (overseer/ration category), TUN3 — GIBIL (new/fresh), ŠA3 2(N45) 5(N14), day/sun (U4), dog? (UR) 2(N45) 5(N14), festival (EZEN), calf (AMAR) 2(N45) 5(N14), physician/diviner (AZU), stone (NA) 2(N45) 5(N14) 1(N01), king (LUGAL), great (GAL), dagger/sword (GIR2) 1(N45), SI, X, cattle-stall/father (AB)? 1(N45), AN, AN, calf (AMAR) [...], ADDA, water (A) [...], [...], plow (APIN) 7(N14), bread (NINDA2 type), barley (ŠE), inner (ŠA3), new/fresh (GIBIL)
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[...] 2(N45@f) 6(N14@f) , [...] |NINDA2x(GISZ.DAR~a)| 1(N36@f) 2(N46@f) 2(N19@f) 2(N04@f) , , SI SZA3~a1 1(N34@f) 2(N45@f) 8(N14@f) 2(N01@f) , SZE~a , PA~a TUN3~a , GIBIL SZA3~a1 2(N45@f) 5(N14@f) , U4 UR~a 2(N45@f) 5(N14@f) , EZEN~b AMAR 2(N45@f) 5(N14@f) , AZU NA~a 2(N45@f) 5(N14@f) 1(N01@f) , LUGAL GAL~a GIR2~a 1(N45@f) , SI X AB~a#? 1(N45@f)# , AN AN AMAR [...] , ADDA A [...] , [...] APIN~a 7(N14@f) , |NINDA2x(GISZ.DAR~a)| SZE~a SZA3~a1 GIBIL
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0185. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P005773) — 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.