Position in chronology
UET 2, 0225
About this tablet
This small lenticular clay tablet from Ur, dating to the Early Dynastic period (roughly 2900–2350 BCE), is an administrative or lexical accounting document recording quantities of commodities or livestock categories alongside sign-clusters that likely denote animal types, institutional categories, or processing activities. The large sexagesimal numbers — running into the hundreds of units — suggest this is a tally of animals (particularly calves and cattle) or goods processed through a temple or palace storehouse. It was found at Ur, one of ancient Mesopotamia's most important cities, and belongs to a tradition of early bureaucratic record-keeping that predates fully readable Sumerian prose. The tablet is too damaged and the sign-clusters too archaic to permit a fully confident reading, but it is a genuine window into the earliest layers of organized economic administration in the ancient world.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is an accounting record listing large quantities of goods or animals under various category labels. The entries run: 280 units (unlabeled), 380 units (unlabeled), 140 units of what appear to be large calves or young cattle, 210 units of a 'mixed' or 'delivered' category, 130 units of mixed calves, 380 units of something divine or celestially designated and processed, 180 units large/water category, 360 units of a water or reed item, 480 units associated with a storehouse and calves, 210 units of a water category with a damaged second sign, 180 units of a reed or water item, a damaged entry whose quantity and label are lost, 380 units of a plant or herb with a 'horn/fill' qualifier, 360 units of calves, and finally 300 units with no label. The middle section is too damaged to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine4(×60) 4(×10) [= 280 units] , 6(×60) 2(×10) [= 380 units] , 2(×60) 2(×10) [= 140 units] , calf — large — ox? 3(×60) 3(×10) [= 210 units] , mixed? — delivered? 2(×60) 1(×10) [= 130 units] , mixed — calf 6(×60) 2(×10) [= 380 units] , divine/celestial — made/processed 3(×60) [= 180 units] , large — water/offspring 6(×60) [= 360 units] , water/offspring — reed? 8(×60) [= 480 units] , storehouse? — calf 3(×60) 3(×10) [= 210 units] , water/offspring — [X, damaged] 3(×60) [= 180 units] , water/offspring — reed? 10(×10)?# [...] , [...] 6(×60) 2(×10) [= 380 units] , herb/plant? — horn/fill 6(×60) [= 360 units] , calf — calf 5(×60) [= 300 units] ,
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
4(N34@f) 4(N14@f) , 6(N34@f) 2(N14@f) , 2(N34@f) 2(N14@f) , AMAR GAL~a GU4? 3(N34@f) 3(N14@f) , HI? DU? 2(N34@f) 1(N14@f) , HI AMAR 6(N34@f) 2(N14@f) , AN AK~a 3(N34@f) , GAL~a A 6(N34@f) , A GISZ? 8(N34@f) , E2~a? AMAR 3(N34@f) 3(N14@f) , A# X 3(N34@f) , A GISZ? 10(N14@f)#? [...] , [...] 6(N34@f) 2(N14@f) , U2~a? SI 6(N34@f) , AMAR AMAR 5(N34@f) ,
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC)) — UET 2, 0225. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P005821) — 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.