Chapter 05 · 2000 – 1600 BCE
Old Babylonian
Hammurabi, the Epic of Gilgamesh, mathematics.
~1950 BCE · OIM A30014 — Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
JANES 18, 48 19
In plain English
Only scraps survive: an entry for 1 of something, another for 12 of something, taken from a person or place whose name is lost, and marked as disbursed. The document identifies itself as a duplicate copy of another record and carries the seal of an official whose name is broken away. It was dated by month and by a year of Išbi-Erra, 'king of his land.' The seal or closing line names the scribe, Lu-Nin-[...]. Everything else is lost to damage.
AI-generated reading paraphrase; compare with the translation below.
“1 [...] 12 [...] from ... [...] ... [...] disbursed(?) [...] copy of [...] ... [...] seal of ...-[...] month: [...] [year: ...] Išbi-Erra, king of [his] land. Lu-Nin-[...], scribe [...]”
Source: engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved) · claude-fable-5 · low confidence
Read the full tablet entry~1950 BCE · UM 55-21-104 — University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
JANES 18, 48 20
In plain English
Receipt: three loaves of bread and a barley ration, with an extra allowance on top, were handed over — the recipient acknowledged getting them from a man whose name begins Sag-... but is otherwise lost. A line or two in the middle is broken away. Dated to the sixth month, the 'work of Inanna' month, in the year remembered as the one when the king of Anshan married the king's daughter. The details of the quantities and the missing names are too damaged to recover.
AI-generated reading paraphrase; compare with the translation below.
“3 (units of) bread [...] barley rations ... [...] (two signs illegible) additional [...] from Sag-[...] [...] (Break) he [rec]eived. Month: kin-Inanna (VI). Year: the king of Anshan took (in marriage) the daughter of the king [...] (year name of Iddin-Dagan of Isin).”
Source: engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved) · claude-fable-5 · medium confidence
Read the full tablet entry~1950 BCE · UM 55-21-103 — University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
JANES 18, 48 22
In plain English
Receipt: four shrine loaves, issued as the food ration for a released female worker. The goods were charged against the account of Inim-Nanna, and the transaction was authorized under the seal of Lu-Ninšubur. Dated to the month of the 'Work of Inanna' festival, in the year when the high priestess of the storm-god Iškur was selected by reading the omens of a sacrificial kid.
AI-generated reading paraphrase; compare with the translation below.
“4 loaves of shrine bread, as the barley ration for the released female worker(s), were withdrawn (expended) from Inim-Nanna. Sealed tablet of Lu-Ninšubur. Month: "Work of Inanna" (kin-Inanna). Year: "The nin-dingir priestess of Iškur was chosen by means of the omen-kid."”
Source: engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved) · claude-fable-5 · medium confidence
Read the full tablet entry~1950 BCE · Kress 001 — private: anonymous, Germany
RIME 4.01.04.05, ex. add18
In plain English
I am Išme-Dagan, the mighty king of Isin and ruler of the four corners of the world. When I lifted the tax burden from Nippur — the city Enlil loves best — and released its men from army duty, I built the great wall of my capital, Isin. I named that wall 'Išme-Dagan is mighty in strength through Enlil.'
AI-generated reading paraphrase; compare with the translation below.
“Išme-Dagan, mighty man, king of Isin, king of the four quarters, when he cancelled the tribute-obligation of Nippur, the beloved city of Enlil, and exempted its troops from military service, he built the great wall of Isin. The name of that wall is: "Išme-Dagan is one of great strength through Enlil."”
Source: engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved) · claude-fable-5 · high confidence
Read the full tablet entry~1950 BCE · Kress 231 — private: anonymous, Germany
RIME 4.04.01.04, ex. add144
In plain English
Sîn-kāšid — a powerful man, king of Uruk and king of the Amnanum tribe, the patron who provides for the Eanna temple — announces that when he rebuilt the Eanna, he also built his royal palace. In effect: 'I, the king, restored the great temple of this city, and I built the palace from which I rule.' A brief, formulaic proclamation stamped onto the building itself so no one would forget who made it.
AI-generated reading paraphrase; compare with the translation below.
“Sîn-kāšid, mighty man, king of Uruk, king of the Amnanum, provider of the Eanna — when the Eanna he built, his palace of kingship he built.”
Source: engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved) · claude-fable-5 · high confidence
Read the full tablet entry~1934 BCE · Multiple — University of Pennsylvania Museum (Philadelphia), Istanbul Archaeological Museums, others
Code of Lipit-Ishtar
One of the earliest law codes after the Code of Ur-Nammu (c. 2100 BCE), and the closest direct predecessor of Hammurabi's better-known code. Lipit-Ishtar's code is written in Sumerian — by this period a learned tongue, no longer spoken in daily life — and uses monetary compensation for personal injury, in continuity with Ur-Nammu. The legal tradition is Sumerian; Hammurabi's later innovation is largely to translate it into Akkadian and add the lex talionis.
“If a man's slave-woman has borne him a child, and the master has given her her freedom, but the child has not been received as an heir, that child is free…”
Source: Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor (2nd ed., 1997), pp. 23–35
Read the full tablet entry~1925 BCE · Reconstructed composite — see ORACC entry for manuscript witnesses
Bur-Sin 1
“(1) Bur-Suen, the shepherd who makes Nibru utterly content, the powerful farmer of Urim, the restorer of Eridug’s divine design, the en priest suitable for the divine powers of Unug, king of Isin, king of Sumer and Akkad, the spouse who befits Inana's holy lap.”
Source: Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI), University of Vienna, edited by Gábor Zólyomi et al. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/Q001973/
Read the full tablet entry~1925 BCE · Reconstructed composite — see ORACC entry for manuscript witnesses
Bur-Sin 2002 / CDLI Seals 012217 (CDLI Seals 012217 (composite))
“(1) Bur-Suen, the powerful king, king of Sumer and Akkad: Abbaĝu, the scribe, child of Lu-Utu, is your servant.”
Source: Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI), University of Vienna, edited by Gábor Zólyomi et al. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/Q001977/
Read the full tablet entry