Position in chronology
CUSAS 35, 081
About this tablet
A small administrative tablet from the ancient city of Adab in southern Iraq (modern Bismaya), dating to the Early Dynastic period, roughly 2600–2350 BCE. It records a formal disbursement of two processed grain commodities — ground groats and malted barley — drawn from the storehouse of a cultic official called the gudug-priest. Two named individuals, Išme-ilum and An-na-šum, are the parties to the transaction; Išme-ilum's name is Semitic (Akkadian: 'God has heard'), a reminder that Adab's population was linguistically mixed even at this early date. The closing date formula, anchoring the record to the barley-harvest month, is a standard institutional touch: this is the routine grain-accounting paperwork of a Sumerian temple economy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two lots of processed grain — each measuring 2 barig (roughly 120 liters apiece) — were issued from the gudug-priest's storehouse: one lot of grain groats, one of malted barley. The disbursement was recorded against the names of Išme-ilum and An-na-šum. This was an official expenditure from the temple storehouse, made during the barley-harvest month.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 barig of groats (gur-standard) 2 barig of malt Išme-ilum An-na-šum Disbursement Storehouse of the gudug(-priest) Month: the barley-harvest month
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
2(barig@c) nig2-ar3-ra gur 2(barig@c) munu4 isz-me-i3-lum an-na-szum2 nig2! zi-ga e2 gudux(AH) iti sze-gurx(|SZE&SZE.KIN|)-a-am6
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — CUSAS 35, 081. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P250886) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
Related tablets
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.