Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

Kress 151

~2550 BCE·Early Dynastic·P390443

About this tablet

An Early Dynastic accounting tablet — roughly 2600–2400 BCE — recording a series of outstanding shortfalls or deficits in grain capacity measures, probably from a temple or palace storehouse in southern Mesopotamia. Two separate pools of commodities are tracked: a large grain balance measured in the Dilmun-standard gur (a trade measure tied to Gulf commerce), and a smaller ration deficit allocated specifically to a group of musicians. The tablet closes with a life-ration entry, a divine dedication or personal name invoking the sky-god An, and a month date — the standard closing formula of Early Dynastic administrative records. The Dilmun-standard gur notation, if confirmed, would make this a rare early document linking inland temple accounting to the Gulf trade network.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

During the month of the Sacred Mound, an institution registered a series of unpaid or outstanding balances. Twenty units of grain — measured in the Dilmun standard — were still owed. A much larger running deficit of 440 units was also recorded and totalled. A separate entry shows 38 units short on rations for a group of musicians, noted specifically as their dairy allocation. The final entries record a life-ration and something given to or dedicated to the god An, but parts of these lines are damaged and cannot be read with certainty. The rest is largely intact as a date-stamp closing the account.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine
Low confidence
20, hand-deficit, [in the] Dilmun(?) gur[-measure] 420 + 20, hand-deficit [LAK240] — that is its [total] 8(?), hand-deficit, [x] gur 40 minus 2, hand-deficit Musicians — that is [their] dairy-ration Life[-ration] Given to An[-na] Month: [Sacred Mound]

Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

Engine notes

read from photo
10 uncertain terms
  • dilmun?Marked with a question mark in the transliteration itself; the sign(s) representing 'Dilmun' are not clearly legible in the photograph. Dilmun (the Persian Gulf / Bahrain region) does appear in ED administrative texts as a source of trade goods, but the reading here is uncertain.
  • gur-ra / gur'Returned' (from gur, 'to turn back / return'); in administrative contexts this typically means goods returned or credited back. Could alternatively relate to the capacity measure 'gur', suggesting 'x gur of barley'.
  • LAK240A proto-cuneiform / Early Dynastic sign not yet fully deciphered in all contexts; the LAK number refers to the Lagaš sign list. Its precise meaning here is unknown.
  • ni-kamA possessive/partitive suffix construction; could mean 'his portion', 'its share', or 'of that (commodity)'. The exact referent is unclear without broader document context.
  • ga-kamLiterally 'it is the ration/milk-allocation'; ga can mean 'milk' or be used in ration-list formulas. Here likely a ration designation attached to the NAR (musician) entry.
  • nam-ti'Life' in Sumerian; in administrative texts this can appear as part of a personal name (e.g., Nam-ti-la, 'life is given') or as a benedictory formula. Whether it is a name or a formula here is ambiguous.
  • an-na-šum₂Could be a personal name ('Annašum', 'given by An/heaven') or a verbal clause ('it was given from/by An'). Both interpretations are lexically defensible; personal name reading is somewhat more common in administrative lists.
  • la₂ (LA2)In later Sumerian contexts: 'deficit', 'balance owed', or 'to weigh'. The precise administrative force in this early text — whether indicating a shortfall, a weighing notation, or something else — is uncertain.
  • NARRead as 'musician' or 'singer' in later Sumerian; the phonetic value is inferred by analogy for this early period. Could conceivably be a professional title, a personal name element, or an institutional category.
  • iti du6-ku3The month name 'Du6-kù' ('the sacred/holy mound'), conventionally the seventh month of the Nippur calendar. Month names vary by city and period, so the exact calendar system here is uncertain without clearer provenance.
Reasoning ↓

The photograph shows three views of a small, rounded (lenticular or 'bun-shaped') clay tablet characteristic of the Early Dynastic administrative corpus. The clay surface is eroded and the wedge impressions are shallow, making individual sign identification difficult at this resolution. On the obverse (top image) I can discern horizontal ruling lines dividing the surface into registers, and within those registers I can make out clusters of impressed marks consistent with numerical notations (groups of circular/semicircular impressions for large-number sexagesimal values and smaller wedge clusters), as well as what appear to be two or three logographic signs in the upper register. The middle image (edge or reverse upper portion) shows a row of circular impressed marks consistent with the large-unit numerals (gesz2-class or asz-class signs). The bottom image (reverse) shows further sign clusters divided by horizontal lines; I can tentatively identify angular wedge groupings consistent with signs like LAK240 or NAR-type signs, and what may be the DU6-KU3 compound in the last line, though resolution prevents certainty. Overall the photo is consistent with — but cannot fully verify — the provided transliteration. The Dilmun reading in line 1 is particularly uncertain as the sign cluster is not clearly legible in the photograph. The month name iti du6-ku3 (the sacred/holy mound month, the seventh month of the Sumerian calendar) is a plausible administrative closing line. No standard published edition of Kress 151 (P390443) was available to cross-check against; the transliteration is taken as provided.

Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 16, 2026 · 1243 in / 1515 out tokens

Transliteration

2(u@c) su la2 dilmun? gur-ra
7(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) su la2
LAK240 ni-kam
8(asz@c)? su la2 x gur
4(u@c) la2 2(asz@c) su la2
NAR ga-kam
nam-ti
an-na-szum2
iti du6-ku3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — Kress 151. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: private: anonymous, Germany (P390443) — 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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