Position in chronology
RTC 062
About this tablet
A small accounting tablet from Girsu (modern Tello, southern Iraq) in the Early Dynastic period, roughly the 24th century BCE. It records shortfalls of fat and oil owed by three named people — a man called Aḫi-li-nutil, a woman named Nin-uma who is identified as the mother of an official called E-gissubi, and a woman named Nin-šešda whose five sila went by way of the overseer Ur-igi-ama. The last entry notes that E-gissubi took the whole amount onto his own account, and the tablet is dated simply to the fourth year of a ruler's reign. It is exactly the kind of debt-and-arrears note that kept a Sumerian temple or palace household solvent.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Outstanding balance: one jar of lard, owed by Aḫi-li-nutil. Ten sila of oil from Nin-uma, mother of E-gissubi. Five sila of oil from Nin-šešda, handed over to the overseer Ur-igi-ama. E-gissubi entered the total against his own account. Filed in year 4.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineDeficit: 1 jar of pig-fat (lard) — Aḫi-li-nutil. 10 sila of oil — Nin-uma, mother of E-gissubi. 5 sila of oil — Nin-šešda, (consigned) to Ur-igi-ama the overseer. E-gissubi charged it to his account. (Year) 4.
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
la2-a 1(asz@c) dug i3 szah2 a-hi-li-nu-til 1(u@c) sila3 i3 nin-u3-ma ama e2-gissu-bi 5(asz@c) sila3 i3 nin-szesz-da ur-igi-ama-sze3 nu-banda3 e2-gissu-bi gu2-na e-ne2-gar 4(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — RTC 062. 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: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221459) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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