Position in chronology
FTP 106
About this tablet
An administrative dairy account from the city of Šuruppak (modern Fara) in southern Iraq, written around 2600 BCE — the town later remembered as the home of the Mesopotamian flood hero. A scribe records identical portions of prime butter (or clarified butterfat) and cream or soft cheese issued in repeated batches to named individuals, including one E-gissu-du ('Sweet Shade') and a woman or official called Nin-kin-nir. It is a small window onto how a Sumerian institutional household portioned out perishable dairy goods, entry by entry, nearly five thousand years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a distribution list, repeated in identical batches: each recipient gets two measures of top-grade butter-cream and two small vessels of cream. The first batch goes to three named people — E-gissu-du, Mes-sanga (the rest of his name is damaged), and Nin-kin-nir. A second identical batch follows, but the name of its recipient is broken away. A third batch of the same two-and-two allotment closes the surviving text. The tablet is a routine dairy ledger: same goods, same quantities, different names.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 (units of) first-quality butter-cream, KA-GABA; 2 small ban-vessels(?) of cream: (for) E-gissu-du, Mes-sanga-..., (and) Nin-kin-nir. 2 (units of) first-quality butter-cream, KA-GABA; 2 small [ban]-vessels(?) of [cream]: ... [...] (recipient's name lost). 2 (units of) first-quality butter-cream, KA-GABA; 2 small ban-vessels(?) of [cream].
Our translation engine — Fable 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(asz@c) i3-gara2-sag KA-GABA! 2(asz@c) ba-an-ASZ-tur gara2# e2-gissu-du10 mes#?-sanga-x nin#-kin-nir# 2(asz@c) i3-gara2-sag KA-GABA! 2(asz@c) [ba]-an-[ASZ]-tur [gara2] x [x] 2(asz@c) i3-gara2-sag KA-GABA! 2(asz@c) ba-an-ASZ-tur# [gara2]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — FTP 106. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P222173) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.