Position in chronology
LB 0262
About this tablet
A debt-note from the Ur III bureaucracy at Girsu in southern Iraq, dated to the accession year of King Amar-Suen (about 2046 BCE). It records an outstanding balance — wool, sesame, and three garments — owed in connection with the house of Puzur-Dagan, and it carries the seal of a scribe named Lugal-tiraš, who is thereby made responsible for repaying it. Small tablets like this were the IOUs of the ancient world: the sealed document itself was the legal proof of obligation, kept until the debt was cleared.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Outstanding balance owed on the account of the house of Puzur-Dagan: just under 27 minas of standard-grade wool (26 5/6 minas plus 7 shekels), a good quantity of sesame (2 barig, 2 ban, and 2 sila — roughly 140 liters), and three dabatum-style garments. Lugal-tiraš, son of Namu, has put his seal to this note and must pay it back. Dated to the year Amar-Suen became king. His personal seal identifies him: Lugal-tiraš, scribe, son of Namu.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine26 5/6 minas and 7 shekels of ordinary-quality (gi) wool, 2 barig, 2 ban, 2 sila of sesame, 3 dabatum-garments: the remaining balance concerning the house of Puzur-Dagan. Sealed tablet of Lugal-tiraš, son of Namu; it is to be repaid. Year: "Amar-Suen (is) king." (Seal:) Lugal-tiraš, the scribe, son of Namu.
Our translation engine — Fable 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
2(u) 6(disz) 5/6(disz) ma-na 7(disz) gin2 siki gi 2(barig) 2(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 sze-gesz-i3 3(disz) tug2 da-ba-tum si-i3-tum mu e2 puzur4-da-gan kiszib3 lugal-ti-ra-asz2 dumu na-mu su-su-dam mu amar-suen lugal lugal-ti-ra-asz2-e dub-sar dumu na-mu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — LB 0262. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y1 — Amar-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: LB 0262 (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, P388795). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
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.