Position in chronology
WF 055
About this tablet
A barley storage and seed-grain account from Šuruppak (modern Fara, southern Iraq), written around 2600–2500 BCE during the Early Dynastic IIIa period. It records quantities of barley held in the great granary and a secondary storehouse, categorises them as heaped grain and seed grain, and concludes with a grand total of 21 large-measure gur-mah. The final line converts that seed-grain reserve into the field area it will sow — over 37 bur, roughly 240 hectares — a figure that anchors the grain account directly to the institution's agricultural land. This is the paperwork of a large temple or palace estate carefully calibrating its granary stocks against the acreage under cultivation.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The great granary holds 11 large gur measures plus 2 barig of barley; a further 6 standard gur and 3½ gur plus 2 barig are assigned to the regular storehouse. These quantities fall under the categories of heaped grain and seed grain. The grand total comes to 21 large gur measures of seed barley — enough to sow a tract of land measuring 37 bur, 1 esze3, and 3 iku, an area of more than 240 hectares.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine11 gur-mah + 2 barig of barley — great granary (ganun-mah); 6 gur of barley; 3½ [gur] + 2 barig — granary (ganun); [category:] gur2-gur2 [heaped/piled grain]; seed grain (sze-numun); [grand total thereof (an-sze3-gu2):] 21 gur-mah of barley — [designated] seed grain (sze-numun); [associated field area:] 3 bur'u + 7 bur3 + 1 esze3 + 3 iku.
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) 1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) sze gur-mah ganun-mah 6(asz@c) sze gur 3(asz@c) 1/2(asz@c) 2(barig@c) ganun gur2-gur2 sze-numun an-sze3-gu2 2(u@c) 1(asz@c) sze gur-mah sze-numun 3(bur'u@c) 7(bur3@c) 1(esze3@c) 3(iku@c)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — WF 055. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany (P011012) — 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.