Position in chronology
FTP 079
About this tablet
A small account of silver from Šuruppak (modern Fara) in southern Iraq, written around 2600 BCE in the Early Dynastic period. It lists seven men by name, each receiving one or two shekels of silver, with the last recipient — or the man who wrote the tablet — identified as a scribe. Payments in silver rather than barley are relatively uncommon this early, making this a valuable glimpse of how precious metal circulated among named individuals in one of Sumer's oldest cities.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a payroll-style silver disbursement: E-zi, Mes-pa, and Ur-šubur each get 2 shekels of silver; Lu-nanam, Engar-zi, Šubur, and Ur-nin-USZ each get 1 shekel — 10 shekels handed out in all. The final entry notes the title 'scribe,' either identifying the last recipient's profession or signing off the record as the work of the accountant who drew it up. The reverse of the tablet is blank; the list is complete as written.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 shekels of silver — E-zi; 2 (shekels) — Mes-pa; 2 (shekels) — Ur-šubur; 1 (shekel) — Lu-nanam; 1 (shekel) — Engar-zi; 1 (shekel) — Šubur; 1 (shekel) — Ur-nin-USZ, the scribe.
Our translation engine — Fable 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) ku3 gin2 e2-zi 2(asz@c) mes-pa3 2(asz@c) ur-szubur 1(asz@c) lu2-na-nam 1(asz@c) engar-zi 1(asz@c) szubur 1(asz@c) ur-nin-USZ dub-sar
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — FTP 079. 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 (P222155) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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