Position in chronology
MRAH O.5014
About this tablet
A small, palm-sized administrative tablet from Early Dynastic Mesopotamia, probably around 2600–2400 BCE. It records the distribution of a commodity — most likely oil or rendered animal fat, though the key sign is damaged — to four named individuals: Ibbūbu, Šeš-pada, Lugal-ra, and Šimdu, in quantities of 15, 15, 16, and 8 capacity units respectively. The closing formula names the delivery channel (an official's own comptroller), records that the goods were brought, and labels the transaction type as 'barley-ration cutting' — a standard Sumerian institutional category for doling out provisions from central stores. Tablets like this one are the surviving paperwork of the ancient temple economy: small, efficiently written, and entirely routine.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Fifteen units of [oil or animal fat — the commodity sign is damaged and cannot be read with certainty] to Ibbūbu. Another fifteen units to Šeš-pada, sixteen to Lugal-ra, and eight to Šimdu. All goods were channeled through the official's own comptroller. Transaction type on file: barley-ration allocation.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine15 [capacity units] — fat/oil(?) [...] [UMBIN×UDU compound] Ibbūbu 15 [capacity units] — Šeš-pada 16 [capacity units] — for Lugal-ra 8 [capacity units] — Šimdu Via his comptroller/inspector (He) delivered (it) Barley-ration cutting
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(u@c) 5(asz@c) i3#?-x |UMBINxUDU| ib-bu-bu 1(u@c) 5(asz@c) szesz-pa3-da 1(u@c) 6(asz@c) lugal-ra 8(asz@c) SZIM-DU giri3-ni szusz3! mu-de6 sze-sag11-ku5
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — MRAH O.5014. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels, Belgium (P452988) — 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.