Position in chronology
Subartu 12, 200
About this tablet
A small round accounting tablet from Tell Beydar (ancient Nabada) in northeastern Syria, written about 2400 BCE in the Semitic-flavoured cuneiform used by the local palace scribes. It logs barley issued day by day — the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of some month — apparently on behalf of the ruler, with a closing entry naming a man or place called A-ba-la-da and a larger total. Beydar's archive is famous for exactly this kind of daily fodder-and-ration bookkeeping, which lets us watch a northern Syrian palace feed its workers and animals on a literal day-to-day schedule.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A running daily barley account kept for the ruler. On day 2, 7 barig 3 ban 5 sila were issued; on day 3, [a broken figure ending in] 5 barig 3 ban 5 sila; on day 4, again 7 barig 3 ban 5 sila. The record closes with an entry for A-ba-la-da: 60 units plus 4 ban. The quantities are near-identical from one day to the next, which is what you would expect from a fixed daily ration or fodder allowance rather than a one-off delivery.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineThe ruler (en), in (the) Land — 7 barig 3 ban 5 sila (of barley) — on the 2nd day; [n] 5 barig 3 ban 5 sila — on the 3rd day; 7 barig 3 ban 5 sila — on the 4th day. A-ba-la-da: 60 (units), 4 ban.
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
_en_ in _kalam_ 7(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) 5(disz@t) _sila3_ in 2(asz@c) _u4_ n 5(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) 5(disz@t) _sila3_ in 3(disz@t) _u4_ 7(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) 5(disz@t) _sila3_ in 4(disz@t) _u4_ a-ba4-la-da 1(gesz2@c) 4(ban2@c)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ebla (ca. 2350-2250 BC)) — Subartu 12, 200. 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 (P274176) — 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.