Position in chronology
PTS 1073bis
About this tablet
A small administrative receipt from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, written under the Third Dynasty of Ur (around 2050–2000 BCE). It records a sizeable quantity of barley earmarked for flour production, held under the seal of an official named Lugal-kisal, with a sworn clause fixing the day on which it may be withdrawn from the sealed storehouse. The oath 'by the name of the king' shows how royal authority backed even routine grain accounting, and the month name 'Lisi' places it in Umma's local calendar.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a storeroom voucher: 6 gur and 3 barig of barley — well over a thousand liters — set aside as milling barley, booked under the seal of Lugal-kisal. The terms are spelled out: on the fifth day of the month, an authorized person may draw the grain out of the sealed storehouse. The commitment was sworn by the name of the king, making it legally binding. The transaction fell under the foreman Buka, and the date is the month of Lisi in Umma's calendar.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine6 gur 3 barig of barley, barley for flour. Sealed tablet of Lugal-kisal. On the 5th day, from the storehouse a man may take it and bring it out — he swore by the name of the king. Foreman: Buka. Month: Lisi.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
6(asz) 3(barig) sze gur sze zi3-da kiszib3 lugal-kisal u4 5(disz)-kam e2-kiszib3-ba lu2 he2-dab5 e3 mu lugal-bi i3-pa3 ugula bu3-ka iti li9-si4
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — PTS 1073bis. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: PTS 1073bis (Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, USA) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P201510). 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.