Position in chronology
SNAT 236
About this tablet
A small credit note from Girsu in southern Iraq, written during the Ur III period (around 2100–2000 BCE). A third of a shekel of silver — a modest sum representing someone's wages — is advanced on account of a smith named Ur-Ningešzida, and a leatherworker who happens to bear the exact same name seals the document and guarantees repayment by the next new moon. It is a vivid glimpse of everyday short-term credit among craftsmen, with the amusing coincidence that debtor, beneficiary, and sealer all share one name, distinguished only by their trades.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is an IOU: one-third of a shekel of silver, covering the wages of Ur-Ningešzida, charged to the account of Ur-Ningešzida the smith. Ur-Ningešzida the leatherworker has put his seal on the document, and the money is due back by the new moon. Filed under wages, in the harvest month. The tablet then repeats the same terms — a third-shekel of silver, the smith's wages, the leatherworker's seal, repayment by the new moon — before a couple of signs too damaged to read. The seal impression identifies the guarantor: Ur-Ningešzida the leatherworker, son of Ur-E.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineOne-third (shekel) of sil[ver], the wages of Ur-Ningešzida — in the name of Ur-Ningešzida, the smith; sealed tablet of Ur-Ningešzida, the leatherworker. It is to be repaid by the new moon. Wages. Month: "Harvest" (še-sag-ku). [One-third (shekel) of silver], [the wages of Ur]-Ningešzida, the smith — [in the name of Ur-Nin]gešzida, the smith; sealed tablet of Ur-Ningešzida, the leatherworker. It is to be repaid by the new moon. ... (two signs illegible) [...] (Seal:) Ur-Ningešzida, the leatherworker, son of Ur-E(?).
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
igi-3(disz)-gal2 ku3-[babbar] a2 ur-nin-gesz-zi-da mu ur-nin-gesz-zi-da simug kiszib3 ur-nin-gesz-zi-da aszgab u4-sakar-sze3 su-su-dam a2 iti sze-sag11-ku5 [igi-3(disz)-gal2 ku3-babbar] [a2 ur]-nin-gesz-zi#-da# simug [mu ur-nin]-gesz-zi#-da simug kiszib3 ur-nin-gesz-zi#-da aszgab u4-sakar-sze3 su-su-dam x x [...] ur-nin-gesz-zi-da aszgab dumu ur-e2?
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — SNAT 236. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: BM 012477 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Girsu (mod. Tello) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P129997). 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.