Position in chronology
CUSAS 35, 209
About this tablet
A small clay receipt from Adab in southern Iraq, written around 2400 BCE, recording a shipment of dates. The administration handed over roughly a gur and two barig of dates to a boatman named Ur-lu, who was to carry them to a place called SAG-NAGAR; two officials, one of them an overseer named Di-Utu, are named as the responsible parties, and the transaction is dated to the month of the Akiti festival. Its interest lies in the detail of river transport: dates from the orchards of the Tigris–Euphrates plain moved by boat, and someone thought it worth writing down who was accountable for the cargo.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Dates, 1 gur 2 barig, issued to Ur-lu the boatman and consigned to him for delivery to SAG-NAGAR. Authorized under Edumu and Di-Utu the overseer. Dated to the month of the Akiti festival. The top right of the tablet is broken, so the capacity unit and the first official's name are restored rather than read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 gur 2 barig of dates, (for) Ur-[lu], to the boatman, for (transport to) SAG-NAGAR, it was given to him. [Edumu], Di-Utu, the overseer. Month: Akiti.
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
1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) zu2#-lum# [gur] ur-[lu2] ma2-lah5-ra SAG-NAGAR-sze3 an-na-szum2 [e2-dumu] di-utu nu-banda3 iti a2-ki-ti#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — CUSAS 35, 209. 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: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P252766) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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