Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/2, pl. 093, 1935-541
About this tablet
An administrative tablet from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, dating to the Ur III period (roughly 2100–2000 BCE), recording the delivery or allocation of bricks across three locations: a village settlement, a mill-house, and an entry associated with a man named Agaga who is identified as a singer. The quantities are precise — measured in the standard Sumerian area/volume units sar and gin — and the tablet closes with a month name and a royal year formula, anchoring it firmly in the bureaucratic machinery of the Ur III state. What makes it slightly unusual is the appearance of a 'singer' (nar) and a 'boatman' (ma₂-laḥ₅) in what is otherwise a routine brick-accounting document, hinting at the cross-institutional labour drafts typical of this period. The year name — 'the year the throne of Enlil was fashioned' — helps date the tablet to a specific year in the reign of an Ur III king.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records the delivery of bricks in three separate allotments: 16 sar and 10 gin assigned to Agaga the singer; 20 sar for the village settlement; and 3⅔ sar plus 5 gin for the mill-house. A boatman is noted as responsible for the brick-carrying tally, and a small number of workers are mentioned (the line is partly broken). The date is the sixth month of the year in which the throne of Enlil was fashioned — a standard administrative timestamp that would have told every official exactly when this transaction took place.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine16 sar 10 gin of bricks — Agaga, the singer; 20 sar of bricks in the village settlement (é-duru₅); 3 and 2/3 sar 5 gin in the mill-house (é-kikken-na) — the boatman, for counted brick-carrying; [x] workers [via (the responsibility of)?] Month: é-iti-6; Year: the throne of Enlil was fashioned.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Engine notes
read from photo7 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-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-18/v5-modern-rendering).
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.