Position in chronology
Subartu 02, 093
About this tablet
A small round clay tablet from Tell Beydar (ancient Nabada) in northeastern Syria, written around 2400 BCE — one of the oldest written archives found in Syria. It is a palace accounting note: twice it records that the ruler (the en) travelled, stayed somewhere at the time of the new moon, and that barley was eaten up on the occasion — first 2 gur, then 1 gur 2 barig 2 ban. The interest of such a scrap is that it lets us watch an Early Dynastic ruler moving through his own territory and see the provisions issued for his entourage, entry by entry, dated by the moon.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two entries on the same account. The ruler set out; at the new moon he stopped and stayed put, and the barley consumed came to 2 gur. Then again: the ruler set out, stayed over at the new moon, barley consumed — 1 gur, 2 barig and 2 ban. In modern terms, a travel-and-subsistence record for the head of state and his party, kept in the palace store's own units of grain.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineThe lord (en) went forth; at the crescent (new-moon) — Utu; he took up residence; [barley] consumed: 2 gur. The lord (en) went forth; at the crescent (new-moon) — Utu; he took up residence; barley consumed: 1 gur, 2 barig, 2 ban.
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
en ba#-gin iti-sar utu al-tusz [sze] gu7 2(asz@c) gur en ba-gin u4-sar utu al-tusz sze gu7 1(asz@c) gur 2(barig@c) 2(ban2@c)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — Subartu 02, 093. 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: National Museum of Syria, Der-ez-Zor, Syria (P227272) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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