Position in chronology
BIN 08, 027
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic barley allocation or receipt record, probably from southern Mesopotamia around 2500–2350 BCE. It lists five named individuals — including a builder and a shepherd — each credited with quantities of barley measured in the archaic circular gur system. The first and largest entry, 3 gur assigned to a man named Egi (identified by his mother's name), is described as 'received back,' suggesting a return of grain or settlement of a prior advance. Documents like this were the everyday infrastructure of the ancient Mesopotamian economy, with grain functioning simultaneously as wages, rations, and credit.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A record of barley received or returned: Egi, son of Ama-NU+NU, accounted for 3 gur of grain — the biggest share, logged as a return payment. The builder Amar-giri received 1 gur and 1 barig; the shepherd Amar-ku6-ara2 received 1 gur of high-quality grain; and two further individuals, Lugal-niĝzu and Lugal-damda, each received 1 gur and 2 barig. The reverse face appears blank or is too worn to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3 gur of barley, received — Egi, son of Ama-NU+NU. 1 gur 1 barig — Amar-giri, builder. 1 gur of prime barley — Amar-ku6-ara2, shepherd. 1 gur 2 barig — Lugal-niĝzu. 1 gur 2 barig — Lugal-damda.
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 photo10 uncertain terms ↓
- su-ga — Standard ED Sumerian for 'received' or 'returned' (lit. 'entered'); the formula confirms this is a receipt or return-of-grain entry rather than a disbursement.
- e-gi — Likely a personal name, but could conceivably be a title or institutional label; the combination e + gi is attested as a name in ED texts.
- ama-|NU+NU| — A personal name containing the sign compound NU+NU (a ligature); the exact reading of the compound sign is uncertain — it may be a specific deity name or an epithet. The # in the transliteration flags this uncertainty.
- amar-giri16 — Personal name: 'calf of the divine Giri' or similar; giri16 is a reading of a divine name sign whose vocalization in this period is debated.
- szitim — Sumerian šitim, 'builder' or 'construction worker'; well attested in ED administrative texts as a professional title.
- sag sze — Literally 'head of barley' — could mean a principal allocation, a ration head-count total, or a first/primary barley entry. The precise administrative meaning here is uncertain.
- amar-ku6-a-ra2 — Personal name: possibly 'calf/young of the fish(-god)' or similar; ku6 = fish, a-ra2 may be a divine epithet or directional suffix. Reading is uncertain.
- sipa# — Sumerian sipa, 'shepherd'; the # indicates slight damage or uncertainty in the sign on the tablet, but the reading is highly probable from context.
- lugal-nig2-zu — Personal name: 'the king knows his property/affairs' or 'the king is your lord'; nig2-zu is a common theophoric/royal name element.
- lugal-dam-da — Personal name: 'the king, together with (his) wife' or similar; dam = 'wife/spouse'; -da = comitative postposition. Both name signs are marked as uncertain (#) in the transliteration.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows a small, roughly lenticular clay tablet — a characteristic shape for Early Dynastic administrative documents. The obverse (central large view) is the most legible face: I can see horizontal ruling lines dividing the surface into registers, with cuneiform wedges visible in each. The signs are compact and somewhat worn, consistent with an ED III administrative hand. I can confirm the presence of numerical notations (the large circular impressions characteristic of the round stylus used for capacity measures — gur and barig signs) in the upper registers, and personal name signs in the lower registers, broadly consistent with the transliteration provided. The edge views show a few signs that appear to be continuation lines, again consistent with the transliteration's structure. I cannot verify the precise sign readings for the more damaged lower register entries (e.g., 'lugal-dam-da', 'lugal-nig2-zu') from the photograph at this resolution, but the overall structure — numerical notations followed by personal names and profession labels — aligns well with the transliteration. The sign 'su-ga' (meaning 'received back' or 'returned') is a common formula in ED grain accounts. The reverse (bottom large view) appears to bear only a few signs, possibly a total or date formula, but is too worn to read with confidence. No significant discrepancies between photo and transliteration are detected; the photograph cannot verify the exact damaged (#) signs in lines 8–9.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 16, 2026 · 2290 in / 1303 out tokens
Transliteration
3(asz@c) sze gur su-ga e-gi dumu ama-|NU+NU| 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) amar-giri16 szitim 1(asz@c) sag sze amar-ku6-a-ra2 sipa# 1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) lugal#-nig2#-zu 1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) lugal#-dam-da
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — BIN 08, 027. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Nies Babylonian Collection, Yale Babylonian Collection, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (P212607) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.