Position in chronology
Subartu 02, 015
About this tablet
A small, heavily worn clay tablet from Tell Beydar (ancient Nabada) in the Syrian Jezirah, excavated in 1993 and now in the National Museum at Deir ez-Zor. It is an Early Dynastic accounting record — roughly 2400 BCE — listing measures of grain assigned to groups of workers and to named individuals (Ba-ri₂, Šu-Ḫardanu, Šu-kabba, Aḫatum, Azazu), with sheep noted in one entry. Tablets like this matter because Beydar is one of the very few Early Dynastic archives found in northern Syria, showing that the southern Mesopotamian habit of writing everything down had already spread far up the Khabur river.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A month heading opens the account, then the disbursements: a crew of ten ĝeš-DU men, with goods amounting to 2 gur 1 barig 3 ban; a še-RU entry of 1 barig 4 ban; their overseer, 1 barig 3 ban. After a broken stretch the list resumes: Ba-ri₂ with four sheep(?), goods of 5 barig 3 ban; Šu-Ḫardanu, eight (men or units); goods of 8 barig 2 ban; Šu-kabba, 1 gur 2 barig; Aḫatum, the same; an outlay of 2 barig; seven wives(?); and Azazu, 1 gur 1 barig. Several figures and one or two names are damaged and cannot be recovered.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineMonth(?): ma-[se₁₁]-tim. lu₂-[ĝeš]-DU men: 10 (persons); goods: 2 gur 1 barig 3 ban. še-RU: 1 barig 4 ban. Overseer of the lu₂-ĝeš-DU men: 1 barig 3 ban. [ ... ] (break) Ba-ri₂ — sheep: 4(?). goods: 5 barig 3 ban. Šu-[Ḫar]-da-nu: 10 minus 2 (= 8). goods: 8 barig 2 ban. Šu-kab-ba: 1 (gur) 2 barig. A-ḫa-tum: 1 (gur) 2 barig. Outlay(?): 2 barig [ ... ]. wife/wives: 7 [ ... ]. A-za-zu: 1 (gur) 1 barig.
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
ITI#-SAR ma-[se11]-tim# lu2#-[gesz]-DU# 1(u@c) nig2 2(asz@c) gur 1(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) sze#-RU 1(barig@c) 4(ban2@c) ugula# lu2#-gesz-DU# 1(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) [...] ba-ri2# udu# 4(asz@c)#? nig2# 5(barig@c)# 3(ban2@c)# szu# [HAR]-da-nu 1(u@c) la2 2(disz@t) nig2 8(barig@c) 2(ban2@c)# szu-kab-ba4 1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) a-ha-tum# 1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) nig2-e3 2(barig@c)#? [x] dam 7(asz@c) [x] a-za-zu2 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — Subartu 02, 015. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: National Museum of Syria, Der-ez-Zor, Syria (P227194) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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Related sources
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.