Position in chronology
Akkadica 135/1, 088-090 08
About this tablet
A small accounting tablet from Umma in southern Iraq, written in the first year of King Šu-Suen of Ur (about 2037 BCE). It records bread — just over two and a half gur, measured down to a third of a sila — disbursed from the account of an official named In-sa-sa for the cult of a divine standard, the emblem carried in processions and rituals. The transaction was authorized with the seal of the city governor, and the seal legend itself is copied out: Ayakalla, governor of Umma, declaring himself the servant of his king. It is a routine piece of bookkeeping that shows how tightly the Ur III state tied temple ritual, provincial administration, and royal authority together.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Issued: 2 gur, 3 barig, 5 ban2 and 8⅓ sila of ŠU-bread, charged as an expenditure for the divine standard. Drawn from the account of In-sa-sa and authorized under the governor's seal. Dated to the month of Pa'u'e, in the year Šu-Suen became king. The seal impression reads: 'Šu-Suen, mighty king, king of Ur, king of the four quarters — Ayakalla, governor of Umma, is your servant.'
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 gur 3 barig 5 ban2 8 1/3 sila of ŠU-bread, expenditure for the divine standard (šu-nir); from In-sa₆-sa₆; under seal of the governor. Month: Pa'u'e. Year: Šu-Suen (became) king. (Seal inscription) [Šu]-Suen, mighty king, king of Ur, king of the four quarters: Ayakalla, governor of Umma, is your servant.
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) 3(barig) 5(ban2) 8(disz) 1/3(disz) sila3 ninda SZU gur zi-ga szu-nir ki in-sa6-sa6-ta kiszib3 ensi2-ka iti pa4-u2-e mu szu-suen lugal []szu-suen lugal kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba a-a-kal#-la# ensi2 umma ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Akkadica 135/1, 088-090 08. 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). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y1 — Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: DMMA AA.TC.62 (Département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P480072). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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