Position in chronology
FTP 079
About this tablet
A silver disbursement list from Early Dynastic Šuruppak (modern Fara, southern Iraq), dated to approximately 2500–2400 BCE. Seven named individuals receive payments in silver shekels: the first three get two shekels each, the last four get one shekel each — a tiered allocation that likely reflects rank or role within a household or institution. The closing word 'scribe' either identifies the tablet's author or marks the profession of the last recipient. The Fara tablets are among the earliest fully legible Sumerian documents, and this small lenticular tablet is a crisp example of the fiscal paperwork underpinning daily life in one of Sumer's great cities.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two shekels of silver apiece went to Ezi, Mes-pa3, and Ur-šubur. Lu-nanam, Engar-zi, Šubur, and Ur-nin-USŠ each received one shekel. The record closes with the notation 'scribe' — likely the title of the official who drafted it, or possibly the profession of the final person on the list.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 shekels of silver — Ezi 2 (shekels) — Mes-pa3 2 (shekels) — Ur-šubur 1 (shekel) — Lu-nanam 1 (shekel) — Engar-zi 1 (shekel) — Šubur 1 (shekel) — Ur-nin-USŠ scribe
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) ku3 gin2 e2-zi 2(asz@c) mes-pa3 2(asz@c) ur-szubur 1(asz@c) lu2-na-nam 1(asz@c) engar-zi 1(asz@c) szubur 1(asz@c) ur-nin-USZ dub-sar
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — FTP 079. 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 (P222155) — 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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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.