Position in chronology
Kress 228
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III administrative account from Umma, recording disbursements — likely of beer and grain — measured out over two consecutive days (the 11th and 12th of the month). It names a source or recipient, Šara-izu, and was authenticated with the seal of the city governor (ensi2), the standard local administrator at Umma under the Third Dynasty of Ur. Such day-by-day ration or supply tallies were routine bookkeeping in the vast bureaucratic apparatus that managed grain and beer allocations across Ur III provincial capitals.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet records two days of rationed supplies. On day 11: 5 sila (a small liquid/dry measure) of an unspecified commodity, another 5 ban2 of something now lost, and a further 1 ban2 6 1/2 sila of beer (reading uncertain). On day 12: 2 ban2 5 sila of ordinary beer. The goods came from or were credited to a person named Šara-izu, and the transaction was sealed by the city governor of Umma. The record is dated to the month Pa'ue, in a year identified only as 'the year following' a year-name honoring a king whose name ended in '-Suen' — the specific king and full year formula are broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine5 sila3 [...] 5 ban2 [...] day 11. 1 ban2(?) 6 1/2 sila3 beer(?) 2 ban2 5 sila3 ordinary beer. day 12. from Šara-izu; under seal of the governor (ensi2). Month: Pa'ue. Year following (the year): '...-Suen, the king, [...]'
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
5(disz) sila3 [x] 5(ban2) [...] u4 1(u) 1(disz)-[kam] 1(ban2)#? 6(disz) 1/2(disz) sila3 kasz? 2(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 kasz du u4 1(u) 2(disz)-kam ki szara2-i3-zu kiszib3 ensi2#-[ka?] iti pa5-u2-e mu us2-sa <x->suen# lugal-e [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Kress 228. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Kress 228 (private: anonymous, Germany) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P471643). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.