Position in chronology
TCBI 2/1, 39
About this tablet
A small round accounting tablet from the middle of the third millennium BCE, probably from Zabalam in southern Iraq, now in the collection of the Banca d'Italia in Rome. It records issues of dabin — a coarse barley flour — handed over to a named recipient, distributed as bread to a gang of workers, and set against a field survey or assessment (kab-tar) of a field belonging to someone called Ildu. The last entry allots a smaller amount of the same flour to the wife of the sanga, the chief administrator of a temple household, and the text closes with a date. It is ordinary institutional bookkeeping, but it shows how an Early Dynastic temple fed its labour force and provided for the family of its own officials.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two gur and two barig of coarse barley flour, of the 'gu' sort, delivered to Lal-e. One line is broken away. Further flour went to the work gang, issued to them as bread, in connection with the survey of Ildu's field, and to DUR2-lal-e. A further one gur and one barig of the same flour was allotted to the wife of the temple administrator. Dated to the twelfth month, year five.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 (gur) 2 barig of dabin-flour, gu; for Lal-e; brought (delivered). [...] (line lost) the work-troop: bread was distributed; the kab-tar (assessment/survey); field of Ildu; DUR2-lal-e. 1 (gur) 1 barig of dabin-flour: the wife of the sanga (temple administrator). Month 12, year 5.
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
2(asz@c) 2(barig@c) dabin gu lal2-e3-sze3@90* de6-a [...] eren2 ninda ba-a kab2*-tar a*-sza3 ildu3 DUR2*-lal2-e3 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) dabin dam sanga iti 1(u) 2(asz@c) 5(asz@c) mu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC) ?) — TCBI 2/1, 39. 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 (P382046) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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