LB 0254

~2037 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P388788

About this tablet

A receipt for a large consignment of barley — roughly 25,000 liters — from the city of Girsu in southern Iraq, dated to the ninth year of King Šu-Suen of the Ur III dynasty (around 2028 BCE). The scribe Ur-Baba acknowledges receiving the grain from an official named Ur-Dumuzi, rolling his personal seal across the tablet as his signature. It is a single sheet from the vast paper trail of the Ur III state, one of the most intensively documented bureaucracies of the ancient world.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

Receipt: 84 gur, 3 barig, 3 ban, and 5 sila of barley — about 25,300 liters — drawn from the barley on hand. Received from Ur-Dumuzi; the transfer was handled by Lugal-nubanda. Sealed by Ur-Baba, son of Ur-Igalim, whose seal identifies him as a scribe. Dated to the month of the Festival of Dumuzi, in the year King Šu-Suen built the temple of the god Šara in Umma.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

84 gur, 3 barig, 3 ban2, 5 sila of barley, barley of the available stock (nig2-gal2-la), from Ur-Dumuzi; sealed tablet of Ur-Baba, son of Ur-Igalim; conveyor (giri3): Lugal-nubanda. Month: "Festival of Dumuzi." Year: "Šu-Suen, the king, built the temple of Šara in Umma." (Seal inscription:) Ur-Baba, scribe, son of Ur-Igalim.

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

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Transliteration

1(gesz2) 2(u) 4(asz) 3(barig) 3(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 sze gur
sze nig2-gal2-la
ki ur-dumu-zi-ta
kiszib3 ur-ba-ba6 dumu ur-ig-alim
giri3 lugal-nu-banda3
iti ezem-dumu-zi
mu szu-suen lugal-e e2 szara2 umma mu-du3
ur-ba-ba6
dub-sar
dumu ur-ig-alim

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — LB 0254. 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: LB 0254 (de Liagre Böhl Collection, Netherlands Institute for the Near East, Leiden, Holland) — from Girsu (mod. Tello) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P388788). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

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