Position in chronology
WF 014
About this tablet
An administrative tablet from Šuruppak (modern Fara, southern Iraq), dating to roughly 2600–2450 BCE, recording the distribution of donkeys to named individuals identified by craft or rank — a construction foreman, a builder, a leather-worker — as well as to institutional groups from the distant cities of Lagaš and Adab. A summary line tallies an outstanding balance of 2¾ plow-donkeys, and the closing colophon marks this as a single stand-alone document. The tablet is a vivid example of the surprisingly wide geographic reach of Šuruppak's bureaucratic network, which tracked pack and draft animals across multiple city-states by name, profession, and origin. Donkeys were among the most economically valuable assets in early Sumer, essential for plowing fields and hauling goods, so their careful accounting here is entirely expected.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Four donkeys go to Darda. AK-nab, the foreman of the construction crew, receives one; Dingir-nu-me, a builder on the same team, gets another. A leather-worker named Dumu-Anzu receives one as well. Two go to the E2-na group from Lagaš, and two more to the E2-la-lum group from Adab. After those allocations, the outstanding balance comes to two and three-quarter plow-donkeys. This is a single self-contained record.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine4 donkeys — Darda 1 — AK-nab, overseer of the construction workers 1 — Dingir-nu-me, construction worker 1 — Dumu-Anzu, leather-worker 2 — E2-na, (of) Lagaš 2 — E2-la-lum, (of) Adab [total outstanding:] 2¾ plow-donkeys Single tablet
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
4(asz@c) ansze dar-da 1(asz@c) AK-nab ugula szitim 1(asz@c) dingir-nu-me szitim 1(asz@c) dumu-anzux(MI) aszgab 2(asz@c) e2-na lagasz 2(asz@c) e2-la-lumx(LAK218) adab an-sze3-gu2 2(asz@c) 3/4(asz@c) ansze-apin dub dili
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — WF 014. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (P010971) — 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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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.