Position in chronology
TMH 05, 211
About this tablet
A small clay note from Nippur in southern Iraq, written some 4,500 years ago, dealing with an unpaid obligation. One measure of a commodity has stood open against a brewer named Azuzu since the harvest month, and the scribe records that the original tablet documenting the debt was carried over — reissued or transferred — dating the event to the time when the governor of Nippur was staying at the city of Iri-sagrig. It is the Early Dynastic equivalent of a note attached to an old IOU, and it shows that even in the earliest legal paperwork scribes kept track of which document superseded which.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One unit of goods is still outstanding against Azuzu the brewer, and has been since the harvest month. The original tablet recording the debt has been rolled over into a new document. This happened while the governor of Nippur was staying at Iri-sagrig. The first line, which gave the commodity, is broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 (unit of) [...], (charged to) A-zu-[zu], the brewer. From the month "Harvest," it is held against him. That tablet was transferred (rolled over), (when) the governor of Nippur was residing together with (the man of) Iri-sagrig.
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)#? [...] a-zu-[zu] lunga iti sze-KIN-ku5-ta an-da-gal2 dub-be6 al#-bala ensi2 nibru iri-sa12-rig7-da i3-da-tusz-a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 211. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Hilprecht Collection, University of Jena, Germany (P020625) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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