Position in chronology
TCBI 1, 017
About this tablet
A small clay ration list from Adab (modern Bismaya) in southern Iraq, written around the middle of the third millennium BCE. It records one barig of barley — a standard monthly allotment, roughly 36 liters — issued to each of five or six men, some identified by office ('overseer of the household') or by kinship ('brother of Ki-e'). Tablets like this were the routine bookkeeping of an Early Dynastic estate or temple, and they preserve the names of ordinary working men who would otherwise be invisible to history. The piece is broken at the top, so the opening entries survive only as restorations.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A barley payroll: one barig apiece to A-ka-du, to E-dam-si, and — after a damaged line mentioning silver — to Lugal-ennun and Ur-narua. Sag-zi, who runs the household, is listed as well, and a final barig goes to Bulani, the brother of Ki-e. The top of the tablet is broken away, so the first quantities have to be supplied, and the back is blank or worn smooth.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[1 barig (of barley):] A-ka-du [1 barig:] E-dam-si DIB(?) — silver ... 1 barig: Lugal-ennun 1 barig: Ur-naru[a] Sag-zi, the overseer of the household 1 barig: Bulani, brother of Ki-e(?) (reverse: uninscribed / surface effaced)
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(barig@c) a]-ka-du3 [1(barig@c)] e2#-dam-si DIB? ku3 x 1(barig@c) lugal-en-nun 1(barig@c) ur-na-ru2#-[a] sag-zi ugula-e2# 1(barig@c) bu3-la-ni szesz ki#?-e2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC) ?) — TCBI 1, 017. 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: Banca d'Italia, Rome, Italy (P382269) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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Related sources
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