Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/2, pl. 140, 1971-349
About this tablet
A small Akkadian-period administrative tablet from Mesopotamia recording ration allocations of barley — 20 shekels each — distributed to a group of named workers and officials, including a lamentation-singer, a master carpenter, a leather-worker, and a canal or irrigation laborer. The final line names a farmer as the supervising official responsible for the group. This kind of tablet is the everyday paperwork of a Mesopotamian institutional household, tracking who received what and under whose authority — a snapshot of the labor force of a temple or estate around 2300–2100 BCE.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Translation · reference
Medium confidence20 (shekels of) barley, the head-ration, for the lamentation-singer (and) the master carpenter; 20 (shekels for) Ur-e'a the leather-worker; 20 (shekels for) Inim-Utu; 20 (shekels for) En-anne'e, the junior [official]; (broken) lamentation-singer, junior [official]; 20 (shekels for) Ad-kup-gal, the man of the irrigation(-ditch workers); their overseer (is) the farmer.
Source: engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation)
Translation · AI engine
read from photo20 (shekels of) barley, the head-ration, for the lamentation-singer (and) the master carpenter; 20 (shekels for) Ur-e'a the leather-worker; 20 (shekels for) Inim-Utu; 20 (shekels for) En-anne'e, the junior [official]; (broken) lamentation-singer, junior [official]; 20 (shekels for) Ad-kup-gal, the man of the irrigation(-ditch workers); their overseer (is) the farmer.
7 uncertain terms ↓
- sag-gal2 — Literally 'big head'; used as a technical term for the primary or head ration allotment. Rendering as 'head-ration' is conventional but the precise administrative meaning varies by context.
- gala — A cultic singer, often associated with lamentation rituals; sometimes left untranslated as 'gala-priest'. Gender and cultic role of the gala are subjects of ongoing scholarly discussion.
- SIG15@v — A logographic sign of disputed reading and meaning in this context; commonly interpreted as a quality or rank marker ('junior', 'lesser', or 'second-grade'). The '@v' indicates a variant form of the sign.
- lu2 nu-ir-a-me — Literally 'man who does not irrigate' or 'man of the irrigation (gang)'; the phrase is an occupational title whose precise meaning is uncertain. Some read it as referring to canal or ditch workers under a supervisor.
- engar maszkim-bi — 'engar' = farmer/agricultural official; 'maszkim' = overseer/commissioner. The phrase 'their overseer is the farmer' names the responsible supervising official. 'maszkim' can also mean 'bailiff' or 'deputy'.
- ad-kup4-gal — A personal name, literally something like 'great reed-cutter/mat-maker'; the element 'kup4' relates to reed-working but this is a name, not a professional title here.
- 2(u@c) — The '@c' indicates a curved (case) form of the numeral sign for 20 in the Akkadian period. Interpreted as 20 units (shekels of barley) per entry.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows a small, well-preserved pillow-shaped tablet with clear horizontal rulings and neat cuneiform wedges on the obverse. The clay surface is intact with only minor surface cracking visible on the lower edge and the reverse (which appears blank). The museum number '6+E 1761' (likely a shelf/tray label, corresponding to Ashm 1971-0349) is visible in ink on the upper edge. On the obverse, the repeated numeral signs at the left of each line are clearly legible and consistent with the '2(u@c)' (= 20) readings in the transliteration. Personal names in lines 3–5 (Ur-e'a, Inim-Utu, En-anne'e) are discernible as multi-sign sequences, though precise sign-by-sign verification is difficult at this resolution. The SIG15@v sign (conventionally read as a marker for 'junior' rank or grade) appears at the right edges of lines 4–5 and partially on line 6; the broken quantity in line 6 is consistent with the empty parentheses in the transliteration. The final two lines with 'lu2 nu-ir-a-me' and 'engar maszkim-bi' are legible as distinct sign groups. The photo and transliteration are in broad agreement; the main uncertainty is the interpretation of SIG15@v and 'lu2 nu-ir-a-me', which is an Akkadian occupational term whose exact rendering ('man of the irrigation workers' or 'man who does not irrigate') is debated in the literature.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 12, 2026 · 3441 in / 1207 out tokens
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(u@c) sze gur sag-gal2 gala nagar-gal 2(u@c) ur-e2 aszgab 2(u@c) inim-utu 2(u@c) en-an-ne2 SIG15@v () gala SIG15@v 2(u@c) ad-kup4-gal lu2 nu-ir-a-me engar maszkim-bi
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — AAICAB 1/2, pl. 140, 1971-349. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P212430) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation).
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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.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.