Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

AAICAB 1/2, pl. 093, 1935-541

~2099 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P248616

About this tablet

A small clay account from Umma in southern Iraq, written around 2040 BCE under the Third Dynasty of Ur. It tallies mud-bricks — measured by volume in sar and gin₂ — hauled by a gang of boatmen to three destinations: a musician named Agaga, a village settlement, and a grain mill. The last lines give the supervisor's name, the month, and the year formula. This is the ordinary bookkeeping of one of history's most obsessively documented bureaucracies, where even the labour of carrying bricks was recorded, checked and filed.

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

Written in modern English

Brick delivery record. Sixteen sar and ten gin of bricks went to Agaga the musician; twenty sar to the hamlet; three and two-thirds sar plus five gin to the mill. The hauling crew was the boatmen. Bricks carried — account verified. Filed under Umani (the name before his is broken away). Dated to the twelfth month of the year in which the throne of Enlil was made.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine
Medium confidence
16 sar 10 gin₂ of bricks — (for) Agaga the musician. 20 sar of bricks — within the hamlet (é-duru₅). 3 2/3 sar 5 gin₂ — within the mill-house (é-kikken). (Workers:) the boatmen. Bricks carried, (thus) accounted. [...] Umani, [via(?)]. Month: "House-of-month-six" (12th month at Umma). Year: "The throne of Enlil was fashioned."

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.

Engine notes

read from photo
7 uncertain terms ↓
  • a-ga-ga-a nar — Personal name Agaga followed by 'nar' (musician/singer). Unusual designation in a brick-accounting context; could be the person responsible for or receiving the bricks, or the label may carry over from a different entry type.
  • e2-duru5 — Literally 'house of the village/settlement' — a rural or suburban settlement associated with an institution. Exact nature of this establishment at Umma is unclear.
  • e2-kikken-na — Literally 'house of the mill' or 'mill-house/grinding house.' Standard Ur III institutional term for a flour-processing facility.
  • ma2-lah5 — Usually 'sailor' or 'boatman'; here seems to function as an occupational label for the person overseeing or carrying out the brick transport, which is slightly unexpected.
  • u3#-ma-ni [giri3?] — Partially broken. 'u3-ma-ni' may be a personal name or a collective noun for workmen/personnel. '[giri3?]' if correct would mean 'via the hand of' / 'under the authority of', a common administrative marker, but the sign is not secure.
  • iti e2-iti-6(disz) — Month name literally 'temple of the sixth month' — a standard Umma calendar month designation.
  • mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2 — Year formula: 'Year (in which) the throne of Enlil was fashioned.' This is a known Ur III year name, provisionally equated with a year of Amar-Sin or Šu-Sin, though exact synchronism depends on the archive context.
Reasoning ↓

Visual examination: The photograph shows five views of a small, well-rounded clay tablet typical of Ur III Umma. The museum number '1935 541' is clearly painted in modern ink on the top edge (top image). The obverse (central large image) shows horizontal ruled lines with cuneiform wedges; the surface has moderate dark spotting (probably mineral deposits) but the wedge impressions are reasonably legible at this resolution. I can make out vertical and diagonal wedge clusters consistent with numerical notations and sign groups, broadly matching the transliteration's layout of numbers followed by SAR/GIN and SIG4 (brick) signs. The left and right side images show edge inscriptions; the right edge appears to carry a few signs that may correspond to the 'ma2-lah5' (sailor/boatman) line. The reverse (bottom large image) shows fewer lines, consistent with the shorter date formulae lines at the end of the transliteration. The final line 'mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2' is a well-known Ur III year formula — the year in which the throne (gu-za) of Enlil was fashioned — anchoring this tablet. The reading 'sig4# ga6-ga2 szid-da' (bricks carried and counted) is a standard phraseology in Ur III brick-delivery records. The personal name Agaga (a-ga-ga-a) with the title 'nar' (musician/singer) is unusual in a brickwork context but not unparalleled; it may denote the recipient or responsible party. The line '[x] u3#-ma-ni [giri3?]' remains partially broken and uncertain; 'u3-ma-ni' could be a workmen/personnel term or a personal name, and '[giri3?]' would indicate 'via' or 'under the authority of'. Cannot fully verify the broken lines from the photo at this resolution.

Generated by Claude Sonnet 4.6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 12, 2026 · 3533 in / 1263 out tokens

Transliteration

1(u) 6(disz) sar 1(u) gin2 sig4
a-ga-ga-a nar
2(u) sar sig4
sza3 e2-duru5
3(disz) 2/3(disz) sar 5(disz) gin2
sza3 e2-kikken-na
ma2-lah5
sig4# ga6-ga2 szid-da
[x] u3#-ma-ni [giri3?]
iti# e2#-iti-6(disz)
mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/2, pl. 093, 1935-541. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ur-Nammu y14 — The throne of Enlil was fashioned based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P248616) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

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