Position in chronology
Anonymous 270814
About this tablet
A small Early Dynastic account tablet, probably from Umma or the Šuruppak region in southern Iraq around 2500 BCE, listing allotments of barley to a handful of named functionaries. Each entry pairs a fixed measure — one gur and one barig — with the person's job: a fisherman travelling to Šuruppak, an overseer of the boatmen, a storehouse scribe, and an administrative commissioner. Ordinary institutional bookkeeping, but it shows a river-based economy where fish, boats, granaries and inspectors were all salaried out of the same grain store.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Grain issues, one gur and one barig apiece: to the fisherman, who was sent to Šuruppak; to the overseer of the boat crews (his amount is broken away); to the scribe in charge of the storehouse; and to the commissioner, PA. The first line, which names Ur-amar-ka₅ and probably heads the account, is too damaged to read in full. The back of the tablet carries no writing.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineobverse 1. [… …] … Ur-amar-ka₅ [x] 2. 1 (gur) 1 barig — the fisherman, gone/delivered to Šuruppak; 3. [… (quantity)] — the overseer of the boatmen; 4. 1 (gur) 1 barig — the scribe of the storehouse (ganun); 5. 1 (gur) 1 barig — the commissioner (maškim), PA. (reverse: uninscribed / surface eroded, no legible signs)
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
[x x] x ur-amar-ka5 [x] 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) lu2 ku6-da szuruppak-sze3 DU [...] ugula# ma2#-lah5 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) dub-sar ganun 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) maszkim PA
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — Anonymous 270814. 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: private: anonymous, unlocated (P270814) — 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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