Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

AAICAB 1/2, pl. 140, 1971-349

~2270 BCE·Akkadian Empire·P212430

About this tablet

This is a small Akkadian-period administrative tablet recording a distribution of barley — measured in the large 'sag-gal₂' gur standard — to a group of named craftsmen and titled officials: a lament-priest (gala), a chief carpenter, a leatherworker, a reed-worker, and others. Each recipient's share (mostly 20 gur) is listed by name or title, and the group is identified collectively as 'the men of Nu-ira,' with a farmer named as the responsible enforcement officer (maškim) overseeing the transaction. Ration and payment lists like this are among the most common surviving cuneiform documents, giving historians a rare, concrete window into how labor and food were organized in a Sargonic-era Mesopotamian workshop or estate.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

This tablet records a barley payout using the large 'sag-gal' gur measure. Twenty gur went to the lament-priest together with the chief carpenter. Another twenty went to Ur-e, the leatherworker; twenty to Inim-Utu; twenty to En-ane, who held the SIG₁₅ title; an unrecorded amount to a gala-priest, also SIG₁₅; and twenty more to Adkup-gal, apparently a senior reed-worker or mat-weaver. All of these men are identified together as belonging to Nu-ira's group, and a farmer is named as the official responsible for overseeing the disbursement.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine
Medium confidence
1. 20 gur barley (by the sag-gal₂ ["great-head"] measure) — 2. (for) the gala-priest (and) the chief carpenter; 3. 20 — Ur-e₂, the leatherworker; 4. 20 — Inim-Utu; 5. 20 — En-ane, the SIG₁₅; 6. (n, not given) — the gala, the SIG₁₅; 7. 20 — Adkup-gal (the [chief] reed-worker/mat-weaver); 8. they are the men of Nu-ira; 9. the farmer is their commissioner (maškim).

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 photo
7 uncertain terms
  • sag-gal2Literally 'big head'; used as a technical term for the primary or head ration allotment. Rendering as 'head-ration' is conventional but the precise administrative meaning varies by context.
  • galaA cultic singer, often associated with lamentation rituals; sometimes left untranslated as 'gala-priest'. Gender and cultic role of the gala are subjects of ongoing scholarly discussion.
  • SIG15@vA logographic sign of disputed reading and meaning in this context; commonly interpreted as a quality or rank marker ('junior', 'lesser', or 'second-grade'). The '@v' indicates a variant form of the sign.
  • lu2 nu-ir-a-meLiterally 'man who does not irrigate' or 'man of the irrigation (gang)'; the phrase is an occupational title whose precise meaning is uncertain. Some read it as referring to canal or ditch workers under a supervisor.
  • engar maszkim-bi'engar' = farmer/agricultural official; 'maszkim' = overseer/commissioner. The phrase 'their overseer is the farmer' names the responsible supervising official. 'maszkim' can also mean 'bailiff' or 'deputy'.
  • ad-kup4-galA personal name, literally something like 'great reed-cutter/mat-maker'; the element 'kup4' relates to reed-working but this is a name, not a professional title here.
  • 2(u@c)The '@c' indicates a curved (case) form of the numeral sign for 20 in the Akkadian period. Interpreted as 20 units (shekels of barley) per entry.
Reasoning ↓

The photograph shows a small, well-preserved pillow-shaped tablet with clear horizontal rulings and neat cuneiform wedges on the obverse. The clay surface is intact with only minor surface cracking visible on the lower edge and the reverse (which appears blank). The museum number '6+E 1761' (likely a shelf/tray label, corresponding to Ashm 1971-0349) is visible in ink on the upper edge. On the obverse, the repeated numeral signs at the left of each line are clearly legible and consistent with the '2(u@c)' (= 20) readings in the transliteration. Personal names in lines 3–5 (Ur-e'a, Inim-Utu, En-anne'e) are discernible as multi-sign sequences, though precise sign-by-sign verification is difficult at this resolution. The SIG15@v sign (conventionally read as a marker for 'junior' rank or grade) appears at the right edges of lines 4–5 and partially on line 6; the broken quantity in line 6 is consistent with the empty parentheses in the transliteration. The final two lines with 'lu2 nu-ir-a-me' and 'engar maszkim-bi' are legible as distinct sign groups. The photo and transliteration are in broad agreement; the main uncertainty is the interpretation of SIG15@v and 'lu2 nu-ir-a-me', which is an Akkadian occupational term whose exact rendering ('man of the irrigation workers' or 'man who does not irrigate') is debated in the literature.

Generated by Claude Sonnet 4.6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 12, 2026 · 3441 in / 1207 out tokens

Transliteration

2(u@c) sze gur sag-gal2
gala nagar-gal
2(u@c) ur-e2 aszgab
2(u@c) inim-utu
2(u@c) en-an-ne2 SIG15@v
() gala SIG15@v
2(u@c) ad-kup4-gal
lu2 nu-ir-a-me
engar maszkim-bi

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — AAICAB 1/2, pl. 140, 1971-349. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P212430) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

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