Position in chronology
FTP 035
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic grain-allocation record from Šuruppak (modern Fara, southern Iraq), dated to roughly 2600–2500 BCE. Five named individuals — a shepherd, a person attached to a road-house institution, a malt-grower, a woman, and a boatman — each receive a measured quantity of grain from what was presumably a central administrative storehouse. Two of the recipients share the name element 'nu-kuš₂' ('tireless'), possibly marking them as members of the same family or household. These small lenticular tablets are the routine paperwork of Sumerian city-state administration, preserving the names of ordinary workers alongside their rations.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two measures of grain go to Šeš-nu-kuš₂ — 'the tireless brother' — a shepherd operating under the designation LAK020. One measure goes to Di-utu, who is affiliated with the E₂×KASKAL establishment, probably some kind of road depot or waystation storehouse. The next entry is slightly damaged: roughly two measures for a man named Ur-sag who works as a malt-grower. Then one measure each for Munus-ma, and for Pa₄-nu-kuš₂ the boatman — who shares that same 'tireless' name element with the shepherd at the top of the list, possibly a kinsman.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 barig — Šeš-nu-kuš₂, shepherd, [LAK020] 1 barig — Di-utu, [of the] E₂×KASKAL 2(?) barig — Ur-sag(?), the malt-grower 1 barig — Munus-ma 1 barig — Pa₄-nu-kuš₂, boatman
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) szesz-nu-kusz2 sipa LAK020 1(barig@c) di-utu |E2xKASKAL| 2(barig@c)#? ur-sag#? munu4-mu2 1(barig@c) munus-ma 1(barig@c) pa4-nu-kusz2 lu2-ma2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — FTP 035. 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 (P222110) — 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.