Position in chronology
CUSAS 15, 184
About this tablet
This is a short Babylonian barley-loan contract from the reign of the Persian king Cambyses (Cambyses II, who ruled Babylon as its king in the late 6th century BCE), dated to his 7th regnal year. A man named Balāṭu owes barley to a creditor named Tattannu, with repayment due — apparently with an added amount, presumably interest — in a specified month. Four witnesses and a scribe put their names to the transaction, and the tablet may have been drawn up in a place called Qatibat, which matches the tablet's uncertain modern findspot name. It is a small, everyday piece of financial paperwork — the kind of routine credit agreement that kept agrarian life running under Achaemenid rule in Babylonia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Tattannu is owed 6 gur and 1 PI of barley by Balāṭu, son of Ina-gissu-lugal. Come the month of Addaru, Balāṭu must hand over an extra 5 gur and 1 PI on top of that — the added cost of the loan. Four men witnessed the deal: Tattannu son of Enlil-šum-iddin, Niqūdu son of Mu-gub, Iškur-mu-ki-il son of Iškur-ad-gub, and Kussari. A scribe named Ba, son of A, wrote it up, apparently at a place called Qatibat. The document is dated to the 5th day of the month of Nisannu, in the 7th year of King Cambyses, king of Babylon and king of the lands.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine6 gur, 1 PI of barley, belonging to Tattannu, son of Talīmu, is a debt against Balāṭu, son of Ina-gissu-lugal. In the month of Addaru (itiŠE), he shall pay, in addition, 5 gur, 1 PI. Witnesses: Tattannu, son of Enlil-šum-iddin; Niqūdu, son of Mu-gub; Iškur-mu-ki-il, son of Iškur-ad-gub; Kussari. Scribe: Ba, son of A. Qatibat. Month Nisannu (Bāru), day 5, year 7, (of) Cambyses, king of Babylon, king of the lands.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 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.
Engine notes
read from photo7 uncertain terms ↓
- ba-la-tu — Literally 'life' or 'subsistence'; in context likely refers to a maintenance/ration allocation. Could also be read as part of a personal name or obligation clause — the exact legal nuance is debatable.
- ISZKUR-MU#-KI!-IL — The # and ! in the transliteration signal that the scribe's signs are partially damaged or corrected. The reading of this personal name (likely a theophoric name with Adad = Ištar/Adad element) is uncertain. Photo cannot confirm.
- a-szu2 sza2 — 'Son of' — standard Akkadian filiation formula (mār ša). Unambiguous in context but repeated many times; each occurrence identifies a witness by patronymic.
- kus-sa-ri — Occupational title, likely 'leather-worker' or 'tanner' (Akkadian: kussāru / gašširu). The exact Babylonian occupational classification is not entirely settled.
- mu-kin-ni — Standard Akkadian term for 'witness(es)' (mūkinnu). Here it introduces the witness list. Unambiguous in meaning but the single witness named after it (Tattannu) seems to head the list, with subsequent entries being 'sons of' other named individuals — possibly all referring to one composite witness or multiple witnesses.
- a qa-ti-bat — 'Son of Qatibat' — this is the scribe's filiation, where Qatibat is apparently a personal (or place) name. The site of modern Qaṭibat in Babylonia is associated with this archive, so this may reflect a family name tied to the locality.
- kam-bu-zi-ia — Akkadian rendering of Cambyses (Kambujiya in Old Persian). Cambyses II, son of Cyrus the Great, ruled Babylon 530–522 BCE; year 7 = ca. 522 BCE.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows a pale, cream-coloured clay tablet presented in multiple views: obverse, reverse, edges, and the flat base bearing the ink-written accession number '184'. The wedge impressions are generally clear and well-preserved on the obverse (middle image) and reverse (bottom image), though a diagonal crack running across the lower half of the reverse has displaced some signs and renders a few readings uncertain. The top image (what appears to be the edge or a narrower face) shows two or three lines legible but difficult to read in detail at this resolution. Visually, the sign groupings on the obverse broadly align with the transliteration's line structure: I can make out repeated ŠÁ signs and what appear to be numeral complexes consistent with '6 GUR 1 PI' at the opening. The personal names (Tattannu, etc.) are harder to confirm from the photo alone due to the small scale, but the witness list section and the date formula signs at the end of the reverse are consistent with the provided transliteration. The reading 'ISZKUR-MU#-KI!-IL' (marked with # and ! in the transliteration indicating uncertain/corrected signs) cannot be independently verified from the photograph. The date formula 'year 7 of Cambyses, king of Babylon, king of the lands' is a well-attested Achaemenid-period formula; Cambyses' year 7 = ca. 522 BCE. The place name 'Qatibat' (mod. Qaṭibat) is consistent with the corpus of Babylonian administrative documents from that region. No significant divergences between photo and transliteration detected, but full sign-by-sign verification is not possible at this resolution.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 4.6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 12, 2026 · 3633 in / 1395 out tokens
Transliteration
_6(asz) gur 1(disz) PI sze-bar_ sza2 ta-at-tan-nu _a_-szu2 sza2 ta-lim ina muh-hi ba-la-tu _a_-szu2 sza2 ina-gissu-lugal ina _iti sze-bar_ a4 _5(asz) gur 1(disz) PI_ i-nam-din mu-kin-ni ta-at-tan-nu _a_-szu2 sza2 en-lil2-mu-sum ni-qu-du _a_-szu2 sza2 mu-gub iszkur-mu#-ki!-il _a_-szu2 sza2 iszkur-ad-gub kus-sa-ri _umbisag_ ba _a_-szu2 sza2 a qa-ti-bat _iti bar u4 5(disz)-kam mu 7(disz)-kam_ kam-bu-zi-ia _lugal e lugal kur-kur_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — CUSAS 15, 184. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Rare Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York, USA (P270798) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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