Position in chronology
Subartu 02, 116
About this tablet
A small Early Dynastic accounting tablet from Tell Beydar (ancient Nabada) in northeastern Syria, written around 2350 BCE — one of the few archives of that age found outside southern Mesopotamia. It lists barley allotments, measured in gur, barig and ban, for a handful of named people and household members: a man called Lu-geš-DU and the overseer of his work-gang, a sheep-handler named Bari, Šu-kabba together with his wife and daughter, and two people with Semitic names, Aḫatum and Azazu. A separate entry sets aside 2 gur for milling work, and the account closes with a month date. It is ordinary household bookkeeping, but it shows a Syrian palace administration using the same Sumerian accounting formulas as the cities of the south.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Grain issued: Lu-geš-DU, 5 gur; goods, 1 gur 5 ban; the foreman of Lu-geš-DU's crew, 1 gur 1 barig 3 ban; Bari of the sheep, 4 gur 5 barig 3 ban; Šu-kabba, 1 gur 2 barig; his wife, 6 gur 4 barig; Aḫatum, 1 gur 2 barig; Azazu, 1 gur 1 barig; the daughter, 1 gur 4 ban. Set aside for milling: 2 gur. Dated to the month of Belim.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineLu-geš-DU: 5 (gur). Goods(?): 1 gur 5 ban. The overseer of the lu-geš-DU men: 1 (gur) 1 barig 3 ban. Bari, (of the) sheep: 4 (gur) 5 barig 3 ban. Šu-kabba: 1 (gur) 2 barig. (His) wife: 6 (gur) 4 barig. Aḫatum: 1 (gur) 2 barig. Azazu: 1 (gur) 1 barig. The female child (daughter): 1 (gur) 4 ban. Milling work (nig₂-KIN-KIN): 2 gur. Month: sar of Belim.
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
lu2#-gesz#-DU 5(asz@c) nig2 1(asz@c) gur 5(ban2@c) ugula lu2-gesz-DU 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) ba-ri2 udu 4(asz@c) 5(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) szu-kab-ba 1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) dam 6(asz@c) 4(barig@c) a-ha-tum 1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) a-za-zu2 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) munus dumu 1(asz@c) 4(ban2@c) nig2-KIN-KIN 2(asz@c) gur iti-sar be#-lim#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — Subartu 02, 116. 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 (P227295) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
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.