Position in chronology
AuOr 33, 215-220
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III administrative tablet — really a sealed docket — recording one barig (a dry-measure, roughly 60 liters) of royal barley. It bears the seal and name of the scribe Lu-gina, son of Lu-baba, who authorized or witnessed the transaction. The date formula places it in the year after Šulgi's campaign year commemorating the ninth destruction of Simurrum and Lullubum (mountain regions northeast of Mesopotamia), meaning the tablet dates to around Šulgi's 33rd regnal year, late in the reign of this powerful Ur III king. Tablets like this, from Girsu, are part of the vast state bureaucracy that tracked grain disbursements down to the barig.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One barig of barley, measured by the royal standard, was recorded and sealed under the authority of Lu-gina during the month called "Harvest." The transaction is dated to the year after the one in which Simurrum and Lullubum were crushed for the ninth time — that is, the 33rd year of King Šulgi's reign. The tablet also carries the seal of the scribe himself, Lu-gina, son of Lu-baba, identifying who recorded and authenticated this small grain entry.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 barig barley, royal (measure). Sealed by Lu-gina. Month: "Harvest" (iti sze-sag11-ku5). Year following the year: "Simurrum and Lullubum were destroyed for the 9th time" (i.e., the year after Šulgi's 32nd year — Šulgi year 33). (Seal inscription:) Lu-gina, scribe, son of Lu-baba.
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
1(barig) sze lugal kiszib3 lu2-gi-na iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu us2-sa si-mu-ru-um lu-lu-bu a-ra2 1(u) la2 1(disz@t)-kam-ma-asz ba-hul lu2-gi-na dub-sar dumu lu2-ba-ba6#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AuOr 33, 215-220. 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: I-A-120, 1033 (Šiauliai Aušros Museum, Šiauliai, Lithuania) — from Girsu (mod. Tello) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P431427). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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