Position in chronology
Akkadica 135/1, 096-098 12
About this tablet
A labor receipt from Umma in southern Iraq, written about 2035 BCE under King Šu-Suen of the Third Dynasty of Ur. It records a single day's work by a gang of fifteen men posted at a structure called the 'Dubla-Utu' — a shrine-platform of the sun-god — with their foreman named and the tablet sealed by a scribe. Thousands of such one-line work dockets survive; together they form one of the most detailed labor-accounting systems anywhere in the ancient world, tracking crews day by day and man by man.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Fifteen laborers, one day's work, at Ka-girida, assigned to the outer structure of the Dubla-Utu shrine. Their foreman was Lugal-itida. The tablet was sealed by Šeš-ani. Dated to the year King Šu-Suen erected the great stele. The seal impression on the tablet reads: Šeš-ani, scribe, son of Dada.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine15 workmen, for 1 day, at Ka-girida, stationed at the bar-la₂ of the Dubla-Utu; overseer: Lugal-itida. Sealed tablet of Šeš-ani. Year: Šu-Suen the king erected the great stele (⟨⟨gal⟩⟩ erased). (Seal inscription) Šeš-ani, the scribe, son of Dada.
Our translation engine — Opus 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
1(u) 5(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3 ka-giri3-da bar-la2 dub-la2-utu gub-ba ugula lugal-iti-da kiszib3 szesz-a-ni mu szu-suen lugal-e na-ru2-mah <<gal>> mu-du3 szesz-a-ni dub-sar dumu da-da
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Akkadica 135/1, 096-098 12. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y1 — Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: DMMA AA.TC.68 (Département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P480076). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.