Position in chronology
Akkadica 135/1, 090-092 09
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III administrative receipt from the city of Umma, recording a disbursement of 56 sila (roughly 56 liters) of dabin-flour issued from a man named Lu-dingira and validated with the seal of the city's governor. It dates precisely to the 28th day of the month Dal in the eighth regnal year of King Shu-Suen, whose year-name commemorated the caulking of the god Enki's ceremonial boat. The closing lines are not new text but the impressed seal legend of Aya-kalla, the historically attested governor of Umma under Shu-Suen, naming the king and declaring the governor his servant — a routine but precisely dated piece of the vast Ur III bureaucratic archive.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records that 56 sila of flour (a standard barley-flour, dabin) were handed over on the 28th day of the month Dal, coming from a man called Lu-dingira. The transaction was certified with the governor's official seal. The date is given by the year-name for Šu-Suen's eighth year, remembered as 'the year the boat of Enki was caulked.' Stamped at the bottom is the governor's seal itself, which reads: 'Šu-Suen, mighty king, king of Ur, king of the four quarters — Aya-kalla, governor of Umma, is your servant.'
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine5(ban2) 6 sila3 dabin-flour (= 56 sila3), day 28, from Lu-dingira, sealed by the governor, month: Dal, year: "The boat of Enki was caulked" (Šu-Suen year 8). (Seal legend:) Šu-Suen, mighty king, king of Ur, king of the four quarters, Aya-kalla, governor of Umma, is your servant.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
5(ban2) 6(disz) sila3 dabin u4 2(u) 8(disz)-kam ki lu2-dingir-ra-ta kiszib3 ensi2 iti dal mu ma2 en-ki ba-ab-du8 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, 090-092 09. 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: DMMA AA.TC.71 (Département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P480073). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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