Position in chronology
QNAR 1, Fig. 3
About this tablet
This is a seal inscription from the reign of Šu-Suen, king of the Ur III dynasty (around 2030 BCE), impressed on a tablet from Girsu in southern Iraq. It belongs to Arad-Nanna, the sukkal-mah or 'grand vizier' — the most powerful official in the empire after the king himself — who inherited the office from his father Ur-Šulpa'e. Seals like this functioned as official signatures: rolling it across a clay document authenticated the transaction with the vizier's authority, while the wording ('your servant') publicly declared his loyalty to the crown.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
To Šu-Suen — mighty king, king of Ur, ruler of the four quarters of the world: this is the seal of Arad-Nanna, the grand vizier, son of Ur-Šulpa'e who held the same office before him. He declares himself your servant. In effect, it is the official signature stamp of the empire's highest minister, dedicating his authority to the king he serves.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineŠu-Suen, mighty king, king of Ur, king of the four quarters — Arad-Nanna, the grand vizier (sukkal-mah), son of Ur-Šulpa'e, the grand vizier: (he is) your servant.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
szu-suen lugal kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba ARAD2-nanna sukkal-mah dumu ur-szul-pa-e3 sukkal-mah ARAD2-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — QNAR 1, Fig. 3. 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 019525 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Girsu (mod. Tello) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P202257). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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