Chapter 05 · 2000 – 1600 BCE
Old Babylonian
Hammurabi, the Epic of Gilgamesh, mathematics.
~1800 BCE · Multiple manuscripts across collections; see ETCSL bibliography for witnesses
Ur-Namma the canal-digger (Ur-Namma D)
“Who will dig it? Who will dig it? Who will dig the Asilal-kug canal? Who will dig the Pabi-luh canal? ...... Ur-Namma will dig it. ...... will dig it. ......, ...... Acimbabbar you are on your ...... because of Enlil. The watercourse of ...... is full of fish, and the air above is full of birds. The fresh water of ...... is full of fish, the air above is full of birds. ...... honey-plants are planted, and the carp grow fat. ...... honey-plants are planted, and the carp grow fat. The gizi reed of ...... is so sweet that the fish eat them. The gizi reed of ...... is so sweet that the fish eat them. Since my ...... was founded, it is teeming with fish and birds. Since ...... was founded, it is teeming with fish and birds.”
Source: ETCSL c.2.4.1.4: Ur-Namma the canal-digger (Ur-Namma D). Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Robson, E. & Zólyomi, G. (eds.), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.2.4.1.4
Read the full tablet entry~1792 BCE · IM 057987 — National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq
SAOC 44, 96
In plain English
This is what's left of a barley loan agreement. Someone borrowed an amount of grain — the figure is broken away — apparently to be repaid at harvest time, and the deal carried interest, as such loans always did. The names of the borrower and lender are mostly lost; a name ending in '-attum' survives. The document closes in the usual way: two witnesses, Ahi-ša-gimil and the scribe Lipit-Ištar, watched the transaction. It was dated in the month of Šu-numun (early summer), in the year King Hammurabi dedicated a statue with a face of gold. The middle of the tablet is too damaged to recover the exact terms.
AI-generated reading paraphrase; compare with the translation below.
“(obverse) [...] ... barley(?), gur-measure(?) [...] at(?) the harvest(?) ... [It bears interest of ...] [...]-attum [...] ... has/bears [...] [...] ... [...]-tum(?) [...]-e [Before A]hi-ša-gimil (witness); before Lipit-Ištar, the scribe (witness). [Month]: Šu-numun (fourth month). [Year: Ha]mmurabi the king [... a statue(?)] whose face (was of) gold [...].”
Source: engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved) · claude-fable-5 · low confidence
Read the full tablet entry