Position in chronology
WF 140
About this tablet
A small accounting tablet from Šuruppak (modern Fara) in southern Iraq, written around 2500 BCE, listing allocations of ghee — clarified butter, one of the standard fats of the Sumerian kitchen and temple offering table. Each line pairs a quantity with a recipient: named individuals such as En-kas, Ur-Utu and A-zuzu, an institutional household (the E-uri), and men identified only by their jobs — the donkey overseer and the gardener. The scribe closed with a grand total of 40, and the individual entries add up to exactly that, so we can watch an Early Dynastic bookkeeper balance his own ledger nearly four and a half thousand years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Ghee distribution list. The E-uri household: 10 measures. En-kas: 10. Dumu-nun-šita: 2. Ur-Utu: 2. The donkey overseer: 2. Tug-TE-DU: 1. Lu-max: 1. A-zuzu: 2. Lamma: 2. The gardener: 5. Šeš-tur: 1. En-abzu-mud: 1. Nig-luguda: 1. Total ghee issued: 40 measures.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine10 (measures of) ghee (i₃-nun): the E-uri (household). 10 (measures): En-kas. 2: |DUMUxNUN|-šita. 2: Ur-Utu. 2: the overseer of the donkeys (ugula-anše). 1: Tug-TE-DU. 1: Lu-max(SI). 2: A-zuzu. 2: Lamma. 5: the gardener (nu-kiri₆). 1: Šeš-tur. 1: En-abzu-mud. 1: Nig-luguda. Grand total (an-šè-gu₂) of ghee: 40.
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
1(u@c) i3-nun e2-uri3 1(u@c) en-kas4 2(asz@c) |DUMUxNUN|-szita 2(asz@c) ur-utu 2(asz@c) ugula-ansze 1(asz@c) tug2-TE-DU 1(asz@c) lu2-max(SI) 2(asz@c) a-zu5-zu5 2(asz@c) lam-ma 5(asz@c) nu-kiri6 1(asz@c) szesz-tur 1(asz@c) en-abzu-mud 1(asz@c) nig2-lugud-da an-sze3-gu2 i3-nun 4(u@c)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — WF 140. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (P011098) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-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.