Position in chronology
TCBI 2/1, 38
About this tablet
A small round clay tablet from the mid-third millennium BCE, probably from Zabalam in southern Iraq, recording a flour allotment. An institutional household issued just over three gur of coarse barley flour — enough for a substantial batch of white bread — to the wife of the sanga, the chief administrator of a temple estate. A man named A-igi-e is named in connection with the transaction, and the entry is tied to Umma and to a span of time (nine months and two years), suggesting it summarizes a longer-term ration entitlement rather than a single day's issue.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Flour issue: 3 gur, 1 barig, 2 ban of barley meal, to be baked into white bread loaves. Recipient: the wife of the temple administrator. Handled by A-igi-e. Delivered at/to Umma, covering a period of nine months plus two years. The reverse of the tablet was left blank.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3 gur 1 barig 2 ban2 of dabin-flour (for) white bread, baked in loaves; (for) the wife of the temple administrator (sanga). A-igi-e (name). Umma — delivered. 9 months, 2 years.
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
3(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 2(ban2@c) dabin ninda babbar du8-du8-a dam sanga a-igi#*-e3 umma DU-a iti 1(u) la2 1(disz@t) 2(disz@t) mu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC) ?) — TCBI 2/1, 38. 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 (P382045) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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