Position in chronology
BAOM 2, 30 61
About this tablet
This is a routine Ur III–period administrative receipt from Girsu (modern Tello), recording a disbursement of barley — just over four gur, a substantial but ordinary quantity — drawn from a fisherman's account for the workhouse and issued as rations for a small crew of laborers, charged to the temple of the god Igalim. It names the responsible official, the sealing witness, the courier who conveyed the grain, and closes with the month and year date, plus the scribe's own name and lineage. Thousands of tablets like this survive from the Ur III state archives at Girsu; together they let historians reconstruct, almost day by day, how grain moved through a Sumerian temple-and-palace economy roughly four thousand years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Four gur, one barig, and three ban of barley — barley from the workhouse account, sourced via the fisherman — were issued as rations to three workers, charged against the temple of Igalim. The grain came from Lu-Ningirsu's account, was certified under the seal of Lu-Ninšubur, and delivered by the courier Ka'amu. Recorded in the month of Amar-a-a-si, in the year that En-amgal, priestess of Inanna, was installed in office. The document was drawn up by the scribe Lu-Ninšubur, son of Ur-Nanše.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine4 gur 1 barig 3 ban2 barley — barley of the workhouse, from the fisherman; fodder-rations for the labor-troops, 3 of them (recipients); (the account of) the temple of Igalim; from Lu-Ningirsu; under seal of Lu-Ninšubur; via Ka'amu; month: Amar-a-a-si; year: En-amgal of Inanna was installed (as en-priestess). Lu-Ninšubur, scribe, son of Ur-Nanše.
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
4(asz) 1(barig) 3(ban2) sze gur sze e2-kin-ga2-da ki szu-ku6 sza3-gal erin2 3(disz)-bi e2 ig-alim-ke4 ki lu2-nin-gir2-su-ta kiszib3 lu2-nin-szubur# giri3 ka5-a-mu iti amar-a-a-si mu en-am-gal inanna ba-a-hun lu2-[]nin-szubur# dub-sar# dumu ur-nansze#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — BAOM 2, 30 61. 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: BM 012479 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Girsu (mod. Tello) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P104924). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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