Position in chronology
WF 019
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic administrative livestock record from Šuruppak in southern Iraq, written around 2600–2450 BCE. It tallies numbers of donkeys allocated to or held by several named individuals — among them Lumma the orchard-keeper and someone identified as a fisherman — with a closing section, under the geographic heading 'upper bank,' recording plow donkeys used in agriculture. The official UR-UR appears twice, suggesting a supervisory figure overseeing at least the field-work animals. This is exactly the kind of workaday inventory a Šuruppak administrator would generate to track working animals distributed across a city's workforce.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Four donkeys are assigned to AK-NE-li; three are directed to KA-ki-bi; four more are of a larger or city type; one belongs to an uncertain category. Two donkeys go to Lumma the orchard-keeper; two to ki-ni; and two to the fisherman kun-du₆, with UR-UR named as the responsible official for that group. Under a separate heading — the 'upper bank,' likely a field district or geographic section — four and a half plow donkeys are recorded, again under UR-UR's account.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine4 donkeys — AK-NE-li; 3 [donkeys] to/for KA-ki-bi; 4 uru₁₈ [donkeys]; 1 nig₂-ḫu-bu₇ [donkey]; 2 [donkeys] — Lumma, orchard-keeper; 2 [donkeys] — ki-ni; 2 [donkeys] — kun-du₆, fisherman; UR-UR; [heading:] an-šè₃-gu₂: 4½ plow donkeys — UR-UR.
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 photo12 uncertain terms ↓
- AK-NE-li — Likely a personal name; exact reading and etymology uncertain in the early Dynastic Fara onomasticon.
- KA-ki-bi-sze3 — Possibly a destination phrase ('to its KA-ki-bi') or a personal/institutional name; the postposition -sze3 suggests directionality (allative), but the referent is unclear.
- uru18 — Sign reading uncertain; may denote a commodity, animal type, or place-name element in this context.
- nig2-hu-bu7 — Literally something like 'thing of hu-bu7'; exact commodity or transaction type unknown; possibly a type of grain processing or animal product.
- lum-ma — Possibly a commodity (dates? a plant product?); attested in Fara texts but referent debated.
- ki-ni — Uncertain; could be a place name, a personal name, or a commodity designation.
- kun-du6 — Uncertain; 'kun' can mean 'tail' or be a name element; 'du6' can mean 'mound/tell' or be phonetic; combination unclear in this context.
- szu-ku6 — Literally ŠU + KU6 (fish); standardly read as 'fisherman's allotment' or simply 'fisherman' in early Dynastic administrative texts, but the precise administrative category is debated.
- UR-UR — Reduplicated UR sign; likely a personal name in the Fara onomasticon; UR alone can mean 'dog,' 'hero,' or be a name element.
- an-sze3-gu2 — Possibly 'neck-load' or a tallying term ('up to the sky/total'); interpretation as a summation or load-bearing unit is uncertain.
- ansze-apin — 'Plow-donkey' — donkey used for plowing; the fractional notation 2/4(asz@c) may indicate half-units or a specific ration fraction, exact value uncertain.
- 4(asz@c) 2/4(asz@c) — The fractional asz@c notation (4 and 2/4, i.e. 4.5?) is consistent with early Dynastic capacity/number notations but the precise value of the fraction needs context from the broader Fara metrological system.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows five views of the same small, well-preserved lenticular/cushion tablet with reddish-brown clay (VAT 9071 is clearly stamped on the lower reverse). The obverse (large central view) displays several rows of cuneiform signs separated by horizontal ruling lines; the wedge impressions are moderately clear but small, and the photo resolution limits confident sign-by-sign confirmation. On the obverse I can make out numeric notation groups (multiple vertical wedges consistent with the asz@c notation for 'units'), animal signs, and what appear to be personal name or title signs — broadly consistent with the transliteration. The reverse (lower large view) carries fewer lines, also consistent with the shorter lines at the end of the transliteration (ansze-apin, UR-UR). The edge views confirm writing wraps around all faces. Agreement with the transliteration is good at the level of structure and numeric groupings; individual sign readings cannot be verified at this resolution. The sign readings 'nu-kiri6' (gardener), 'szu-ku6' (fisherman ration/allotment), 'ansze-apin' (plow-donkey), and 'an-sze3-gu2' (neck-load/total) follow standard early Dynastic administrative vocabulary from the Fara corpus. AK-NE-li and UR-UR appear to be personal names; KA-ki-bi-sze3 is a destination or beneficiary formula. The tablet belongs to the well-studied Fara administrative archive (Deimel, Wirtschaftsurkunden aus Fara). Key uncertainties are the referents of nig2-hu-bu7, ki-ni, kun-du6, lum-ma, and the precise administrative function of an-sze3-gu2 in this context.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 16, 2026 · 2058 in / 1486 out tokens
Transliteration
4(asz@c) ansze AK-NE-li 3(asz@c) KA-ki-bi-sze3 4(asz@c) uru18 1(asz@c) nig2-hu-bu7 2(asz@c) lum-ma nu-kiri6 2(asz@c) ki-ni 2(asz@c) kun-du6 szu-ku6 UR-UR an-sze3-gu2 4(asz@c) 2/4(asz@c) ansze-apin UR-UR
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — WF 019. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (P010976) — 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.