Position in chronology
CDLI Literary 000578, ex. 002
About this tablet
A short Sumerian letter, copied as a school exercise at Nippur around 1800 BCE. The writer, a man named Ilaba-tah-lugalĝa away on a long expedition in the king's service, writes home to his brothers asking them to send him basic supplies — salt, spice, and a garment — by courier. Such model letters were staples of Old Babylonian scribal education, and this one preserves the everyday anxieties of travel: the road keeps getting longer, and there is no chance to check on family back home.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Tell my brothers this message from Ilaba-tah-lugalĝa: The trip we're on is dragging out — the king, our rightful king, keeps pushing forward, and one leg of the journey just gets added to the next. We won't be able to check in on our mother. (A damaged line seems to voice a worry about the folks in our home neighborhood.) So please: send me one sila of salt, one sila of gazi-spice, and a šagadu-garment — get a courier to bring them. This journey of ours is long. It's urgent!
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineSay to my [brothers]: this is what Ilaba-tah-lugalĝa says: The journey we are going on is long, and the true king, our king, [has pressed on(?)] ... journey [has been added] to journey. We will not be able to ask after our mother. May the day not set upon our neighborhood ... deceitfully(?). 1 sila of salt, 1 [sila of gazi-spice], 1 šagadu-garment — have a courier bring (them) back to me! Our journey is long. It is urgent!
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
[szesz]-mu-ne u3-na-du11# il2#-a-ba4-tah-lugal-ga2-ke4 na-ab-be2-a al-su3-u4 kaskal i-im-re7-de3-en u3 lugal gi#-na# lugal-me NI [ba-an-us2] kaskal-e [kaskal ba-an]-tah ama-me en3 li#-bi2-in-tar-re-de3-en# dag-gi4-me u4 na-an-szu2-usz-a LUL-[ASZ] 1(disz) sila3 mun 1(disz) [sila3 gazi] 1(disz) sza3-ga-du3[] lu2-gir7 hu-mu-e#-gi4# kaskal-me al-su3-u4 a-ma-ru-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC)) — CDLI Literary 000578, ex. 002. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: OIM A30297 (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA) — from Nippur (mod. Nuffar) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P356834). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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.