Position in chronology
SNAT 185
About this tablet
A small accounting tablet from Girsu in southern Iraq, written under the Third Dynasty of Ur around 2027 BCE (year 2 of King Ibbi-Suen). A bookkeeper records milled grain and bran held at a storehouse and converts each amount into its value in plain barley — the standard unit of account — then totals it. Two brothers, Ur-Igalim and Lu-Utu, handled the goods. It is a snapshot of the meticulous double-entry mindset of one of history's most bureaucratic states, dated to the exact day.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Inventory note, day 5 of the month Amar-a'asi. On hand: about 200 liters of groats, valued at roughly 133 1/3 liters of barley, and just over 700 liters of bran, valued at 140 liters of barley — total barley value: 273 1/3 liters. The goods are stored at ...-sabum, in the timber storehouse. Handled by Ur-Igalim and his brother Lu-Utu. Filed in the year the high priestess of Inanna was chosen by omen — Ibbi-Suen's second year on the throne.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3 barig 2 ban of groats (milled grain), its barley (equivalent): 2 barig 1 ban 3 1/3 sila; 2 gur 1 barig 4 ban of ... bran, its barley (equivalent): 2 barig 2 ban; (total:) 4 barig 3 ban 3 1/3 sila, in ...-sabum, in the timber storehouse; conveyor: Ur-Igalim and Lu-Utu, his brother. Month: Amar-a'asi; year: "The en-priest(ess) of Inanna was chosen by means of the (omen-)kid." The 5th day.
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
3(barig) 2(ban2) nig2-ar3-ra sze-bi 2(barig) 1(ban2) 3(disz) 1/3(disz) sila3 2(asz) 1(barig) 4(ban2) duh x gur sze-bi 2(barig) 2(ban2) () 4(barig) 3(ban2) 3(disz) 1/3(disz) sila3 sza3 x-sa-bu-um sza3 ga2-nun gesz giri3 ur-ig-alim u3 lu2-utu szesz-a-na iti amar-a-a#!-si mu en inanna masz-e i3-pa3 u4 5(disz)-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SNAT 185. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: BM 014923 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Girsu (mod. Tello) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P129946). 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.