Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/3, pl. 182, Bod A 18
About this tablet
A barley loan drawn up at Nippur under the Third Dynasty of Ur, around 2040 BCE. A man named Lu-balasaga, son of a temple gatekeeper, borrows two gur of barley (roughly 600 liters) from a creditor called Šar-iš at the standard Sumerian rate of 33⅓ percent, and swears a royal oath to repay it eleven months later, in the month of Šu-numun — probably just after the next harvest. Four witnesses are named, and the tablet is dated by month and by the year-name commemorating the building of the temple of the god Šara. It is a completely ordinary piece of ancient consumer credit, and that is exactly what makes it valuable: it shows how a private Sumerian household bridged the hungry gap between harvests.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Lu-balasaga, son of the gatekeeper of Dumuzi, has taken out a loan of two gur of barley from Šar-iš, at interest of one barig four ban per gur. He has sworn by the king's name that he will pay it back, measured out in full, in the month of Šu-numun. Four witnesses attest the agreement: Man-šum, Lugal-ezem, Ud-saga, and Ur-Šulpa'e. Dated the month of Abu, in the year the temple of Šara was built. The tablet is sealed by Lu-balasaga, son of Ur-dun.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 gur of barley, with interest of 1 barig 4 ban of grain per gur, from Šar-iš, Lu-balasaga, son of the gatekeeper of Dumuzi, has received. That in the month of Šu-numun he will measure it out, he swore by the name of the king. 1: Man-šum; 1: Lugal-ezem; 1: Ud-saga; 1: Ur-Šulpa'e — these are its witnesses. Month: NE-NE-gar (Abu). Year: "The temple of Šara was built." (Seal / caption) Lu-balasaga, son of Ur-dun.
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(asz) sze gur masz2 gur 1(barig) 4(ban2)-ta ki szar3-isz11-ta lu2-bala-sa6#-ga dumu i3-du8 dumu-zi# szu ba-ti iti szu-numun-a ag2#-e-de3 mu lugal-bi in-pa3 1(disz) ma-an-szum2 1(disz) lugal-ezem 1(disz) u4-sa6-ga 1(disz) ur-szul-pa-e3 lu2-inim-ma-bi-me iti NE-NE-gar mu e2 szara2 ba-du3 lu2-bala-sa6-ga dumu ur-dun#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/3, pl. 182, Bod A 18. 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: Bod A 018 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK) — from Nippur (mod. Nuffar) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P142533). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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