Position in chronology
CST 012
About this tablet
This is a small field-survey record from the Sargonic (Akkadian) period, around 2300–2200 BCE. It is probably from the province of Lagash, since Gu-sur was a district there. A surveyor measured the plots held by a gala-priest (a temple lamentation singer) and by a father and his son. He noted how much of each plot carried barley and how much was in a second land category. He added up the totals and recorded that the barley had ripened. The tablet shows how carefully Sargonic administrators tracked individual plots and the people who farmed them.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The survey lists three plots. The gala-priest Nisqum's field has 2 iku of barley. Ḫe-saman has 4 iku of barley and 1¼ iku of UD.GUNU land. His son Ur-eš has ½ iku of barley and ¾ iku of UD.GUNU land. Altogether that makes 6½ iku of barley (one eše and half an iku) and 2 iku of the other land. The field has been measured and the barley is ripe. The record comes through Lugal, the tenant, and concerns the Sila-du irrigation district, Zamu, at Gu-sur. It is dated to the 4th month of year 6.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse (no side divisions are marked in the source; lines numbered here in sequence) 1. 2 iku, barley: field of 2. the gala-priest Nis[qum]. 3. 4 iku, barley; 1¼ iku, UD.GUNU (land): 4. Ḫe-saman. 5. ½ iku, barley; ½ + ¼ iku, UD.GUNU (land): 6. Ur-eš, 7. son of Ḫe-saman. 8. Total: 1 eše ½ iku, barley; 2 iku, UD.GUNU (land). 9. Field surveyed; barley dried (ripe). 10. From Lugal, the tenant (plough-holder). 11. Irrigation district of Sila-du, 12. Zamu, Gu-sur. 13. Year 6, month 4.
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
2(iku@c) sze GAN2# gala ni-is-[qu2] 4(iku@c) sze 1(iku@c) 1/4(iku@c) UD@g@v he2-saman3 1/2(iku@c) sze 1/2(iku@c) 1/4(iku@c) UD@g@v ur-esz3 dumu# he2-saman3 szunigin 1(esze3@c) 1/2(iku@c) sze 2(iku@c) UD@g@v a-sza3 gid2-da sze had2-a ki lugal apin-la2 agar4 sila3-du za3-mu gu-sur 6(disz@t) mu 4(disz@t) iti#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — CST 012. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (P212937) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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