Position in chronology
Orient 55, 158-159 no. 4
About this tablet
An administrative receipt from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, written around 2040 BCE under the Third Dynasty of Ur — one of the most bureaucratically meticulous states of the ancient world. It records 612 bundles of reed issued from the stores of one official to another for boat work: outfitting a boat that carried bread and building two more vessels, all in service of the bala, the rotating tax obligation Umma owed to the crown. The tablet was sealed by the receiving official Huwawa and countersigned by the scribe Lu-Ebgal, showing how even a load of reeds moved only with proper paperwork.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Received: 612 bundles of reed, drawn from Lugal-azida's stores. Purpose: loading out the bread-transport boat and constructing two new boats, chargeable to our bala tax rotation. Receipt sealed by Huwawa; the transfer was handled by Gatie. Dated to the year the city of Šaššūrum was destroyed for the second time. Authorized under the seal of Lu-Ebgal, scribe, son of Ur-gepar.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine612 bundles of reed, for lading the bread-boat and for the building of two boats, for the bala-obligation; from Lugal-azida, sealed tablet of Huwawa, via Gatie. Year: "Šaššūrum was destroyed for the second time." (Seal:) Lu-[Ebgal], the scribe, son of Ur-gepar.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
1(gesz'u) 1(u) 2(disz) sa gi ma2 ninda la2-a u3 ma2-2(disz) du3-a bala-sze3 ki lugal-a2-zi-da-ta kiszib3 hu-wa-wa giri3 ga-ti-e mu sza-asz-szu2-ru-um a-ra2 2(disz)-kam ba-hul lu2-[eb-gal] dub-sar dumu ur-ge6-par4
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Orient 55, 158-159 no. 4. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: WCMA 20.1.15 (Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P424382). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.