Position in chronology
DP 036
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Šuruppak in southern Iraq, dating to roughly 2600–2400 BCE. It records ten entries tracking quantities of a commodity designated 'si' — most plausibly horns or horn implements — divided into two grades: a 'large' type and a 'prime-quality' type. The account closes with the standard receipt formula šu ba-ti ('received'), confirming a formal transfer of goods; a damaged closing line may identify a fisherman as the responsible party. This is the routine bookkeeping of a Sumerian institution: quantities tallied across multiple lots, the handover certified, and the record pressed permanently into clay.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Over ten entries, this account tallies what are probably horns: two of the large grade, forty prime-quality, then several measured lots of roughly seven-and-a-half units each, followed by 105, 51, 42, 23, and finally 118 prime-quality items — a substantial running inventory. At the end the tablet confirms receipt of the goods. The last two lines are too damaged to read with confidence, but what survives hints at a fisherman as the responsible party and perhaps a note that distribution was completed.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 si, large-grade; 40 si-[NUxU], prime quality; 7, 4 ban of si; 105 si-[NUxU], prime quality; 7, 4 ban of si; 51 si-[NUxU], prime quality; 7, 2 ban of si; 42 si-[NUxU], prime quality; 23 si; 118 si-[NUxU], prime quality; [Account of the] fisherman? (šu-[ku₆?]); Received (šu ba-ti); si; [ba-za?]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
2(asz@c) si gal-gal 4(u@c) si-|NUxU| sag 7(asz@c) 4(ban2@c) si 1(gesz2@c)! 4(u@c) 5(asz@c) si-|NUxU| sag 7(asz@c) 4(ban2@c)# si 5(u@c) 1(asz@c) si-|NUxU| sag 7(asz@c) 2(ban2@c) si 4(u@c) 2(asz@c) si-|NUxU| sag 2(u@c) 3(asz@c) si 2(gesz2@c@d) la2 2(asz@c) si-|NUxU| sag szu-[ku6?] szu# ba-ti#! si ba-za#?
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — DP 036. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P010053) — 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.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.