Position in chronology
WF 141
About this tablet
An administrative commodity tablet from Šuruppak (modern Fara, Iraq), dated to around 2500 BCE, tracking allocations of a product called gamurx — likely a fodder or grain commodity associated with livestock — held by two pastoral officials: a cowherd and a herdsman. Each official's account is broken down into two distinct receipt categories, one for sealed direct receipts and one for hand-touching deliveries, before both are summed in a grand total on the reverse. The internal arithmetic is perfectly consistent — 899 plus 111 equals 1,010, and the receipt sub-totals also balance exactly — making this a sharp demonstration of the double-track bookkeeping already practiced by Early Dynastic scribes. It is a routine piece of temple or palace bureaucracy from one of the world's earliest literate urban administrations.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The cowherd was responsible for 899 units of standard gamurx: 8 units and 3 ban2 came in through sealed receipts, and just under 20 units (specifically, 20 units minus 1 barig and 3 ban2) through hand-touching deliveries. The herdsman accounted for 111 units of standard gamurx: 1 unit and 1 barig via sealed receipt, and 2 barig and 3 ban2 via hand-touching. The foot of the tablet carries the grand totals — 1,010 units of standard gamurx overall, 9 units 1 barig 3 ban2 in sealed receipts, and 20 units 1 barig in hand-touching deliveries. The numbers add up exactly.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine899 [units of] standard gamurx; 8 [units] 3 ban2 of gamurx — sealed receipt (šu-kam4 lid2-ga); 20 [units] minus 1 barig 3 ban2 of gamurx — hand-touching receipt (šu-tag lid2-ga); [Under] na-gada (the cowherd). 111 [units of] standard gamurx; 1 [unit] 1 barig of gamurx — sealed receipt (šu-kam4 lid2-ga); 2 barig 3 ban2 of gamurx — hand-touching [received]; [Under] unu3 (the herdsman). Grand total: [1,0]10 [units of] standard gamurx; 9 [units] 1 barig 3 ban2 of gamurx — sealed receipt (šu-kam4 lid2-ga); 20 [units] 1 barig of gamurx — hand-touching receipt (šu-tag lid2-ga).
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(gesz'u@c) 5(gesz2@c) la2 1(asz@c) nig2-du3 gamurx(LAK490) 8(asz@c) 3(ban2@c) gamurx(LAK490) szu kam4 lid2-ga 2(u@c) la2 1(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) gamurx(LAK490) szu tag lid2-ga na-gada? 1(gesz2@c) 5(u@c) 1(asz@c) nig2-du3! gamurx(LAK490) 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) gamurx(LAK490) szu kam4 lid2-ga 2(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) gamurx(LAK490) szu tag unu3 szu-nigin2# 1(gesz'u@c)# 6(gesz2@c)# 5(u@c)# gamurx(LAK490)# nig2#-du3 9(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) gamurx(LAK490) szu kam4 lid2-ga 2(u@c) 1(barig@c) gamurx(LAK490) szu tag lid2-ga
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — WF 141. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (P011099) — 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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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.