Position in chronology
MRAH O.5014
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic labor roster from southern Mesopotamia, roughly the 25th–24th century BCE: a running count of work gangs — 15, 15, 16 and 8 men — each listed under a named overseer, mustered for the barley harvest. A livestock official named Girini delivered the crews, and the scribe closed the account with the label 'barley reapers.' It is a snapshot of how an early Sumerian institution mobilized and tracked seasonal harvest labor, one of the oldest forms of workforce accounting we possess.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Head-count for the barley harvest: fifteen men under Ibbubu (the first entry's name is partly damaged), fifteen under Šeš-pada, sixteen under Lugal-ra, and eight under ŠIM-DU — fifty-four workers in all. Girini, the animal-husbandry official, brought them in. Filed under: barley reapers. The back of the tablet is blank.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) 15 (men): I-x-... (of the) |UMBINxUDU|(-group?), Ibbubu; 15 (men): Šeš-pada; 16 (men): Lugal-ra; 8 (men): ŠIM-DU. Girini, the šuš₃(-official), brought (them). (These are) the barley reapers. (reverse uninscribed)
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
1(u@c) 5(asz@c) i3#?-x |UMBINxUDU| ib-bu-bu 1(u@c) 5(asz@c) szesz-pa3-da 1(u@c) 6(asz@c) lugal-ra 8(asz@c) SZIM-DU giri3-ni szusz3! mu-de6 sze-sag11-ku5
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — MRAH O.5014. 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: Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels, Belgium (P452988) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.