Position in chronology
RIME 3/2.01.04.11, ex. 01
About this tablet
A royal building inscription from Adab in southern Iraq, around 2030 BCE, in the reign of Šu-Suen of the Third Dynasty of Ur. The local governor, Habaluge, records that he built a temple for the king himself — for by this time Šu-Suen had been deified, and provincial officials honored him as 'their beloved god.' The tablet is a vivid witness to the state cult of the living king, in which loyal governors displayed devotion to the crown by building sanctuaries in his name.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This inscription commemorates a temple built in honor of King Šu-Suen — the beloved of the god Enlil, whom Enlil himself chose as the favorite of his heart; the mighty king, king of Ur, king of the four quarters of the world. Habaluge, governor of Adab and the king's servant, built this beloved temple for him, treating the deified king as his own personal god. In modern terms: the provincial governor put up a shrine to his reigning monarch and signed his name to the dedication.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineŠu-Suen, beloved of Enlil, the king whom Enlil chose as the beloved of his heart, mighty king, king of Ur, king of the four quarters, his beloved god — Habaluge, governor of Adab, his servant, built for him his beloved temple.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
szu-suen ki-ag2 en-lil2-la2 lugal en-lil2-le ki-ag2 sza3-ga-na in-pa3 lugal kal-ga lugal uri5-ma lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba dingir ki-ag2-ga2-a-ni ha-ba!-lu5-ge2 ensi2 adab ARAD2-da-ni e2 ki-ag2-ga2-a-ni mu-na-du3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — RIME 3/2.01.04.11, ex. 01. 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: OIM A01134 (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P226503). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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