Position in chronology
Subartu 02, 113
About this tablet
A small round administrative tablet from Tell Beydar (ancient Nabada) in northeastern Syria, written about 2400 BCE, in the archive of a local palace. It is a travel-expense account: it records the barley eaten by the donkeys and the accompanying work-gang while the ruler (the 'en') was away on a journey — eleven donkeys on one stage, twelve on another, with a three-day stopover. Texts like this are among the earliest evidence for how a Syrian city-state provisioned an official caravan, counting fodder day by day in the standard Sumerian capacity units gur, barig and ban.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Month of Ne-nengar. Travel account for the ruler's journey to Udara: eleven donkeys plus the work-crew, fodder issued — 7 barig of barley. Then the ruler moved on: twelve donkeys plus the crew, fodder issued — 2 gur, 4 barig, 2 ban of barley, covering a three-day halt. In short, an ancient expense sheet for the animals and men of a royal trip.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineMonth: Sar-nenegar (NE.NE.GAR). The lord (en), on the journey (to?) Udara: donkeys: 11; work-troop (erin₂); barley consumed: 7 barig. The lord went (ba-gin). Donkeys: 12; work-troop (erin₂); barley consumed: 2 gur 4 barig 2 ban₂. 3 days he/they stayed (al-tuš).
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
iti sar ne-ne-gar en in kaskal u9-da-ra ansze 1(u@c) 1(asz@c) erin2 sze gu7 7(barig@c) en ba-gin ansze 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) erin2 sze gu7 2(asz@c) gur 4(barig@c) 2(ban2@c) 3(disz@t) u4 al-tusz
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — Subartu 02, 113. 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 (P227292) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-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.