Position in chronology
Fs Krecher 339-340 07
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Šuruppak (modern Fara, southern Iraq), dated to roughly 2600–2500 BCE, recording the distribution of goats — she-goats and male goats — among five named individuals or household establishments. The arithmetic is exact: 12+2+16+3+33+23+15+40 = 144, precisely matching the closing total, and this cross-check also independently supports the partially damaged numeral in the third entry. Tablets of this type formed the backbone of Šuruppak's urban economy, tracking livestock as it flowed through one of Mesopotamia's major administrative centres of the mid-third millennium. One of the recipient names contains the sun god Utu, reflecting the theophoric naming conventions standard in Early Dynastic Sumer.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Five individuals or offices each received a share of the city's goat herd: Utu-im-ru got 12 she-goats and 2 male goats; the household or estate known as E2-su13-ag2 got 16 she-goats and 3 male goats; Me-mah-nu-sa2 got 33 she-goats; Nam-mah2-sud3 got 23 she-goats; and Amar-gu2-la2 got 15 she-goats. A further 40 male goats are recorded without a named recipient. The grand total comes to 144 animals.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine12 she-goats, 2 male goats — Utu-im-ru. 16 she-goats, 3 male goats — E2-su13-ag2. 33(?) she-goats — Me-mah-nu-sa2. 23 [she-goats] — Nam-mah2-sud3. 15 [she-goats] — Amar-gu2-la2. 40 male goats. 144 — grand total.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(u) 2(disz) ud5 2(disz) LAK020 utu-im-ru 1(u) 6(disz) ud5 3(disz) LAK020 e2-su13-ag2 3(u)# 3(disz) ud5 me-mah-nu-sa2 2(u) 3(disz) nam-mah2-sud3 1(u) 5(disz) amar-gu2-la2 4(u) balax(LAK020) 2(gesz2) 2(u) 4(disz) an-sze3-gu2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED I-II (ca. 2900-2700 BC) ?) — Fs Krecher 339-340 07. 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: Ist Š 0682 (Arkeoloji Müzeleri, Istanbul, Turkey) — from Šuruppak (mod. Fara) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P480572). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
Related tablets
Related sources
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