Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

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

~2270 BCE·Akkadian Empire·P212430

About this tablet

A small administrative tablet from the Akkadian period (roughly 2350–2150 BCE), recording ration or payment allotments of barley — 20 shekels' worth per entry — disbursed to a list of named or titled individuals. Recipients include leather-workers, a gala-priest (a cultic singer), and personal-name holders, all supervised by an agricultural official. The tablet is a routine piece of institutional bookkeeping, the kind produced in the thousands by Mesopotamian temple or palace scribes to track who received what. Its interest lies in the mix of craft workers and cultic personnel under a single agricultural overseer, hinting at the broad reach of a centralised administrative household.

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

Written in modern English

This tablet records barley rations of 20 shekels each going to several individuals: the gala-singer attached to the master-carpenter, a leather-worker named Ur-e'a, someone named Inim-Utu, En-an-ne (receiving a lower-grade allotment), and a gala-priest (also on the lower grade). One entry — for Ad-kup-gal — is listed under the heading of the 'non-irrigating' canal-work gang. The responsible supervisor overseeing all these disbursements is the farmer-official (engar). One entry's quantity has not survived.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine
Medium confidence
20 (shekels of barley), top-quality rations — Gala-priest of the master-carpenter; 20 (shekels): Ur-e'a, the leather-worker; 20 (shekels): Inim-Utu; 20 (shekels): En-an-ne, [of the] lower [quality / second grade]; (quantity lost): Gala-priest, [of the] lower [quality / second grade]; 20 (shekels): Ad-kup-gal; — the 'non-irrigating man' (canal-work gang); their overseer: the farmer (agricultural official).

Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

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-4-6 (2026-05-18/v5-modern-rendering).

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