Position in chronology
N 0290
About this tablet
This is a small Early Dynastic (mid-3rd millennium BCE) administrative tablet from Nippur, recording the disbursement of two commodities — a quantity of a plant (u2-hab2, likely used for dye, tanning, or medicine) and a measured amount of cedar-scented resin or aromatic — that were sent onward to the city of Kish. It is the kind of everyday bookkeeping record temple or palace scribes produced by the thousands: a note of goods issued, their destination, and the date, closed with a month name and a note that ten days of that month had already passed. Such tablets, though modest, are some of our best evidence for how goods and commodities moved between early Sumerian cities.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This record notes that 2 barig of the u2-hab2 plant were issued, along with 10 units disbursed, and one furrow-measure of cedar-scented resin. The goods were sent from someone (name lost) to the city of Kish. The next two lines are too damaged to read clearly, but the text then states the goods 'were given' (or names a person, An-na-šum). The entry closes with the month name 'Silver-ŠIM' and notes that ten days of that month had already gone by. In short: a brief shipping or disbursement memo, tracking a plant product and an aromatic resin sent from Nippur to Kish, dated to the tenth day of a named month.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 barig(c) of u2-hab2-plant; 10 (units), disbursed (ba); 1 furrow-measure (absin3) of cedar aromatic-resin (šembi/šim erin-na); from [PN(?)], to Kish; [...] -tu; [...] -built/-du3; was given (to him) / An-na-šum. Month: "Silver-ŠIM" (ku3-ŠIM); day 10 having passed.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
_2(barig@c) u2#-hab2_ _1(u@c) ba_ _1(asz@c) absin3 szembix(|TAxSIG7|) erin-na_ _ki# [x]-x kisz#-sze3_ [x x]-tu [x x]-du3# an-na-szum2 _iti ku3-SZIM_ _u4 1(u) zal-la-a_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — N 0290. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P275528) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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