Position in chronology
WF 151
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic account from Šuruppak (modern Fara), around 2500 BCE, recording the distribution of copper by weight. Eleven recipients — some of them households or temple estates whose names begin with é, "house" (É-ḫursag, É-en-ra, É-zi-pa-è), others individuals such as Ur-gibil and Munus-ki-nu-zu — receive either 20 or 4 mana each, and the scribe closes with a grand total of 140 mana, roughly 70 kilograms of metal. Copper had to be imported into southern Iraq, so a tablet like this documents an administration parcelling out a genuinely valuable strategic commodity. The neat ruled boxes on the obverse and the single summary line on an otherwise blank reverse are the classic Fara bookkeeping format.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Copper issue, by weight: A-NI-NI, 20 mana; the É-ḫursag estate, 20; É-en-ra, 20; Iškur, 20; É-zi-pa-è, 20; Ur-gibil, 4; Amar-KISAL-NUN, 4; DUMU×NUN-šita, 4; Munus-ki-nu-zu, 4; Šita, 4; A-si, 20. One further line is too worn to read. Grand total: 140 mana of copper — about 70 kilograms in all.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine20 mana of copper: A-NI-NI; 20 (mana): É-ḫursag (the "House of the Mountain"); 20 (mana): É-en-ra; 20 (mana): Iškur; 20 (mana): É-zi-pa-è; 4 (mana): Ur-gibil; 4 (mana): Amar-KISAL-NUN; 4 (mana): |DUMU×NUN|-šita; 4 (mana): Munus-ki-nu-zu; 4 (mana): Šita; 20 (mana): A-si; [... ...] (two signs illegible) (reverse / total) Total: 140 mana of copper.
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
2(u@c) ma-na uruda a-NI-NI 2(u@c) e2-hur-sag 2(u@c) e2-en-ra 2(u@c) iszkur 2(u@c) e2-zi#-pa-e3 4(asz@c) ur-gibil6 4(asz@c) amar-KISAL-NUN 4(asz@c) |DUMUxNUN|-szita 4(asz@c) munus-ki-nu-zu 4(asz@c) szita 2(u@c) a-si4 x x 2(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) ma-na uruda
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — WF 151. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (P011109) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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