Position in chronology
Subartu 02, 114
About this tablet
A small sealed account from Tell Beydar (ancient Nabada) in the Khabur triangle of northeastern Syria, written around 2400 BCE in the mixed Sumerian-Semitic scribal idiom of that city. It records a short journey or stay by the ruler (en): three days on the road or in residence, during which donkeys and a gang of 22 men were fed barley — a little over two gur in all — plus a smaller measure charged against purchases. Texts like this are the travel expense sheets of an early Syrian palace, showing how an administration tracked fodder and rations down to the last ban.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Dated to the new moon (of Belim?). The ruler travelled out and remained three days. Fodder and rations issued: barley for the donkeys and for a work gang of 22 men, totalling 2 gur, 1 barig, 3 ban. A further 2 ban was charged to purchases, stored in a container. Several signs in the opening lines are damaged or of uncertain meaning.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineNew-moon day of Be-lim(?); šu, u₂, šim(?); the ruler (en) went (there); 3 days he stayed. Donkeys (and) 22 work-troop (men) — barley consumed: 2 gur 1 barig 3 ban₂. Purchase goods(?): |GA₂×NE+E₂| (vessel/container): 2 ban₂.
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
u4-sar#:be-lim# szu u2 szim en ba#-gin 3(asz@c) u4 al-tusz ansze 2(u@c) 2(asz@c) erin2 sze# gu7 2(asz@c) gur 1(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) nig2-sa10 |GA2xNE+E2| 2(ban2@c)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — Subartu 02, 114. 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 (P227293) — 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.