LB 0256

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P388790

About this tablet

This is a small Ur III administrative receipt from Girsu, dated to the year Kimaš was destroyed (a campaign of King Šu-Sin, late 21st century BCE). It records a disbursement of barley — over three gur, drawn from a granary associated with Elamite personnel — released for a wooden fitting or brace used in a field called Elam-egara, and sealed by an official named Adda. Tablets like this are the routine bookkeeping of a large temple or state economy: they show how grain moved from storehouses to specific work orders, and how Elamite laborers or place-names had become woven into the everyday administration of southern Mesopotamia.

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

Written in modern English

This tablet records that 3 gur and 3 barig of barley, measured by the royal standard, was issued from the Elamites' granary, charged to the account of Šu-Eštar. The grain was allocated for a wooden brace or fitting needed in the field called Elam-egara. The transaction was sealed by an official named Adda, son of Giš-BAD, and dated to the month of the Baba festival, in the year Kimaš was destroyed. The seal impression on the tablet identifies Adda again, giving his father's name and his office as steward in service of the god Dumuzi.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

3 gur 3 barig barley, royal (measure) — from the granary of the Elamites, from (the account of) Šu-Eštar, for the gešgaba-tab (wooden brace/fixture) of the field Elam-egara. Sealed by Adda, son of Giš-BAD. Month: 'Festival of Baba.' Year: 'Kimaš was destroyed.' (Seal legend:) Adda, son of Giš-BAD, steward of Dumuzi.

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

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Transliteration

3(asz) 3(barig) sze gur lugal
i3-dub elam-e-ne#?-ta
ki szu-esz18-dar-ta
gesz-gaba-tab a-sza3 elam-e-gar-ra-sze3
kiszib3 ad-da dumu GISZ-BAD
iti ezem-ba-ba6
mu ki-masz ba-hul
ad-da
dumu GISZ-BAD
agrig dumu-zi

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — LB 0256. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: LB 0256 (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, P388790). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

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