Position in chronology
LB 0243
About this tablet
This is an Ur III period administrative receipt or delivery record from Girsu (modern Tello), dated to the year after Kimaš was destroyed — a year name of king Šu-Suen, placing the tablet around the early 21st century BCE. It records a quantity of wheat (12 gur, 2 ban2) directed to a man named Lu-igima, with the transaction sealed by an official named Ka'a, son of Atu, and conveyed through an intermediary named Ur-tur. Tablets like this are the routine bookkeeping of the vast Ur III state economy, tracking grain movements between officials and institutions in the province of Lagash/Girsu.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records a grain transaction: 12 gur and 2 ban2 of wheat (the smaller amount is a bit unclear on the tablet) were allocated to a man named Lu-igima. The transaction bears the seal of Ka'a, son of Atu, who is also named again at the very end in the seal inscription. Amar-ayasi is also noted as involved in the deal, and a man called Ur-tur served as the go-between who carried out the transfer. The document is dated to the month called "Mušudu," in the year following the year Kimaš was destroyed — a standard way Ur III scribes dated documents by referencing a notable royal military event of the previous year.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 12 gur 2 ban2(?) wheat, 2. to (the account of) Lu-igima — 3. sealed by Ka'a, son of Atu. 4. Month: "Mušudu," 5. and Amar-ayasi (also party to this); 6. via Ur-tur. 7. Year following the year: "Kimaš was destroyed." (Seal legend:) 8. Ka'a, 9. son of Atu.
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(u) 2(asz) 2(ban2)? gig gur ki lu2-igi-ma-sze3# kiszib3 ka5!-a dumu a-[tu] iti mu-szu-du7 u3 amar-a-a-si giri3 ur-tur mu us2-sa ki-masz ba-hul ka5-a dumu a-tu#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — LB 0243. 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: LB 0243 (de Liagre Böhl Collection, Netherlands Institute for the Near East, Leiden, Holland) — from Girsu (mod. Tello) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P388777). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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Related sources
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