Position in chronology
TSŠ 0869
About this tablet
A personnel roster from the city of Šuruppak (modern Fara, in southern Iraq), dating to roughly 2600–2500 BCE, deep in the Early Dynastic period. It lists individuals and small groups under their names or titles — seven persons under one official, one under another, six shepherds as a group — and closes with the administrative sign BAD, a conventional marker that divides or closes a section of accounts. The compound personal names are typical of the scribal tradition at Šuruppak, where the city archive produced hundreds of similar terse lists tracking people, rations, and resources. A single damaged line, possibly mentioning timber, and the unresolved 'writing' thematic tag leave open the question of whether some entries concern scribal personnel or writing materials rather than agricultural workers.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The first entry is damaged — an unknown number of persons recorded under the name or designation Šeš-tur (perhaps 'junior official'). Then follow: seven persons under Mes-lu₂-nu-ḫun; one under Bilx-a₂-nu-kuš₂; seven under Bara₂-sag₇-nu-di; and three individuals listed singly — Du₆-du₆, Si-du₃, and En-kas₄ (whose name suggests something like 'lord-courier'). Six shepherds close the main list. The next line is too damaged to read beyond a possible mention of wood or timber. The tablet ends with BAD, signaling the close of this section of the account.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our enginen [šeš-tur] 7 Mes-lu₂-nu-ḫun 1 Bilx(PAP.GEŠ.BIL)-a₂-nu-kuš₂ 7 Bara₂-sag₇-nu-di 1 Du₆-du₆ 1 Si-du₃ 1 En-kas₄ 6 shepherds [...] wood(?) [...] BAD
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
n(disz) szesz-tur 7(disz) mes-lu2-nu-hun 1(disz) bilx(|PAP.GESZ.BIL|)-a2!(DA)-nu-kusz2 7(disz) bara2-sag7!(SZAGAN)-nu-di 1(disz) du6-du6 1(disz) si-du3 1(disz) en-kas4 6(disz) sipa [...] gisz#? [...] BAD
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — TSŠ 0869. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ist Š 0869 (Arkeoloji Müzeleri, Istanbul, Turkey) — from Šuruppak (mod. Fara) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P010924). 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.