CST 172

About this tablet

This is an Old Akkadian farm work record, from roughly 2300–2150 BCE, of unknown origin in Mesopotamia and now in Claremont, California. It records how much barley land was reaped and how many days of work each harvest took, and groups the plots under the foremen of the work gangs: Ur-gigir, Lugal-si and Ur-dumu. The figures add up exactly, so the text shows how carefully Akkadian-period estates tracked labour against surveyed land. The name Lugal-KA at the end probably belongs to the official responsible for the account.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

Harvest report. Ur-Gigir's crew reaped five plots of barley: one of 2 bur 1 eše, which took two days, and four more of 1 bur 1 eše 1 iku, 1 bur 1 iku, 1 bur 1 eše and 1 bur 3 iku, each done in a day. That comes to 7 bur 5 iku of barley land harvested in six working days. Lugal-si's crew reaped 1 bur 2 iku in one day. Ur-dumu's crew reaped 1 eše 3 iku in one day. The record ends with the name Lugal-KA.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

1. 2 bur 1 eše of field: 2 days; 2. 1 bur 1 eše 1 iku of field: 1 day; 3. 1 bur 1 iku of field: 1 day; 4. 1 bur 1 eše of field: 1 day; 5. 1 bur 3 iku of field: 1 day; 6. total: 7 bur 5 iku of field, 7. barley harvested; 8. labour: 6 days; 9. foreman: Ur-gigir. 10. 1 bur 2 iku of field: 1 day; 11. foreman: Lugal-si. 12. 1 eše 3 iku of field: 1 day; 13. foreman: Ur-dumu. 14. Lugal-KA.

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

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Transliteration

2(bur3) 1(esze3) GAN2 2(disz@t) u4
1(bur3) 1(esze3) 1(iku@t) GAN2 1(disz@t) u4
1(bur3) 1(iku@t) GAN2 1(disz@t) u4
1(bur3) 1(esze3) GAN2 1(disz@t) u4
1(bur3) 3(iku@t) GAN2 1(disz@t) u4
szunigin 7(bur3) 5(iku@t) GAN2
sze sagx(|SZE.KIN|)-a
a2 6(disz@t) u4
ugula ur-gigir2
1(bur3) 2(iku@t) GAN2 1(disz@t) u4
ugula lugal-si
1(esze3) 3(iku@t) GAN2 1(disz@t) u4
ugula ur-dumu
lugal-KA

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — CST 172. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, California, USA (P462377) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).

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