Position in chronology
FTP 036
About this tablet
A small clay tablet from Šuruppak (modern Fara) in southern Iraq, written about 2600–2500 BCE, listing rations or allotments of barley for four named people. The scribe ruled the surface into boxes, put the measured amount in each box and the recipient's name beside it — the ordinary bookkeeping of a large household or temple storehouse. Names like Sag-nintuku and Nin-ama-na are otherwise unknown individuals, preserved only because someone once counted out grain to them.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Grain issued, measured in lidga: Sag-nintuku gets 2 barig 1 ban of barley; Me-NIGIN-something gets 1 barig 1 ban; Nin-ama-na gets 4 ban; and Bara-…-gal gets 3 barig. Two of the personal names are damaged and can only be read in part. The back of the tablet was left blank, so there is no total and no date — just the four allotments as the storekeeper recorded them.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 2 barig 1 ban₂ of barley, (by the) lidga (measure): Sag-nintuku. 1 barig 1 ban₂: Me-NIGIN₂-[…]. 4 ban₂: Nin-ama-na. 3 barig: Bara-[…]-gal. (Reverse uninscribed / blank.)
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
2(barig@c) 1(ban2@c) sze lid2#-ga# sag-nin-tuku 1(barig@c) 1(ban2@c) me#-NIGIN2# x 4(ban2@c) nin-ama-na 3(barig@c) bara2#?-x-gal2#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — FTP 036. 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: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P222111) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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