Position in chronology
AAS 024
About this tablet
An administrative labor record from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, dating to the Ur III period (roughly 2050–2000 BCE). It allocates specific plots of agricultural land to work-crews — one group doing textile work (tug-gur), another laying roof beams — and calculates the total person-days required. The document is sealed and certified by a scribe named Ur-emah, son of Dada, and dated by reference to the year after the famous Amorite Wall was built under King Šu-Suen. That wall, built to keep nomadic Amorite peoples out of the Ur III heartland, is one of the great infrastructure projects of ancient Mesopotamia, making even a routine farm-labor tablet a datable moment in history.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Translation · reference
Medium confidence[2 eše 3 iku] of field (for) tug-gur (textile) work, tug-gur (and) ½ iku ¼ iku of field each, (for) roof-beam laying, 3 times, 4 iku ½ iku of field each — [The labor] of the work-force thereof: 2 sixties and 30 days. [The fi]eld: KWU729-x-[...] [Overseer:] Šeš?-[...] [Seal of] Ur-emah. Year after (the year): Šu-Suen, [the king], built the Amorite wall. Ur-emah, scribe, son of Dada.
Source: engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation)
Translation · AI engine
read from photo[2 eše] 3 iku of land: (for) tug-gur (textile-pressing/fulling) work, (rate of) 1/2 iku 1/4 iku of land per (unit); (for) timber-roofing work, 3 times (at rate of) 4 iku 1/2 iku of land per (unit). [The labor] of the corvée workers thereof: 50 days. [The] field of KWU729-x-[...] [Overseer:] Šeš?-[...] [Seal of] Ur-emah. Year after (the year): Šu-Suen, [the king], built the wall of the Amorites. Ur-emah, scribe, son of Dada.
8 uncertain terms ↓
- tug2-gurx(|SZE.KIN|) tug2-gur8 — The exact meaning of tug-gur / tug-gurx in this context is debated; likely refers to a type of textile work, possibly 'fulling' or 'pressing' cloth. The sign complex |SZE.KIN| for gurx is a known but uncommon variant.
- gesz-ur3-ra — Literally 'timber-roofing'; refers to the work of laying roof beams. Standard Ur III labor category.
- a2 erin2-na — Literally 'labor of the troops/workers'; standard Ur III term for corvée or conscripted labor force.
- u4 2(gesz2) 3(u)-kam — 2×60 + 30 = 150 days, or possibly read as 2(gesz2) 3(u) = 150. The exact numeral parsing depends on the sign grouping in the original, which cannot be fully confirmed from the photo.
- KWU729-x-[...] — KWU729 is a rare sign catalogued in the Krebernik-Waetzoldt sign list; the field name here is only partially preserved and the reading is uncertain.
- szesz? — Reading of the overseer's name is tentative; the šeš element (brother) may be part of a compound name; the rest is broken.
- bad3 mar-tu — The 'Amorite Wall' (Sumerian: bad3 mar-tu), a defensive fortification built by Šu-Suen; well attested in Ur III date formulas.
- mu us2-sa — Standard Ur III formula meaning 'the year after (the year in which)'; the full date formula identifies the administrative year.
Reasoning ↓
Layer 1 — visual examination: The photograph shows a multi-sided tablet (labeled GF3 / CF3 in modern pen), displayed from several angles. The obverse/face view (middle-left cluster) reveals densely impressed cuneiform wedges on a dark-fired clay surface. The tablet is fragmentary: the upper-left corner and lower portions show clear breakage and erosion, consistent with the square brackets in the transliteration. Individual sign clusters are visible but at this resolution most individual wedges cannot be confidently resolved into specific sign readings — the surface is deeply impressed and relatively well-preserved in the central area, but the edges are lost. The reverse face (bottom image) shows additional sign columns, also with wedge impressions visible but not fully legible at this resolution. Layer 2 — transliteration-based: This is a standard Ur III labor/field account from Umma. The text records field areas assigned to textile-fulling and timber-roofing labor at given area-rates, with a total corvée labor in days, followed by field name, overseer, and seal notation. The date formula 'mu us2-sa šu-suen lugal-e bad3 mar-tu ba-du3' is the well-known year name for the year after Šu-Suen built the Amorite wall (Šu-Suen year 4 or 5 equivalent formula). Cross-check: The photo confirms a fragmentary tablet with multiple lines of text and edge damage matching the lacunae in the transliteration, but individual sign resolution is insufficient to confirm or dispute specific readings; 'cannot verify' the broken passages from the photo alone. The sign KWU729 is a rare or damaged reading and cannot be verified visually.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 3167 in / 1196 out tokens
Why it matters
Transliteration
[2(esze3)] 3(iku) GAN2 tug2-gurx(|SZE.KIN|) tug2#-gur8 1/2(iku) 1/4(iku) GAN2-ta gesz-ur3-ra a-ra2 3(disz) 4(iku) 1/2(iku) GAN2-ta [a2] erin2-na-bi u4 2(gesz2) 3(u)-kam [a]-sza3 KWU729-x-[...] [ugula] szesz?-[...] [kiszib3] ur-e2-[mah] mu# us2-sa szu-suen [lugal]-e bad3 mar-[tu ba]-du3 ur-e2-mah dub-sar dumu da-da
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAS 024. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y2 — Year after: Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: College de France, Paris, France (P100012) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation).
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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.