Index of translations of Sumerian tablets
Sumerian clay tablets that, as far as we could check, had no published English translation. We translate them ourselves. The page linked above is the index of the series. A new tablet is a new row there, not a list copied into every story.
All translations are new and unofficial, made from transliterations on the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), and may contain errors. Tablet images are credited to the holding institutions and CDLI. Dates use the conventional middle chronology and are approximate.
“From Ilum-bani, Ur-Nusku, the nu-eš priest, [and] Lu-Enlila, his son, and Nam-ušurdam received it.”
A loan of silver at interest, from Nippur, with seven witnesses and a seal. The borrowers are a priest, his son, and a third person whose relationship to them is not given.
It comes from Nippur, in what is now southern Iraq, dated day 5 of the seventh month of the year “Šu-Suen became king”, around 2037 BC.
The loan
“36 shekels of silver as an interest-bearing loan; interest: 1 shekel per 5 shekels.”
Thirty-six shekels is half a mina and six shekels, about 300 grams of silver. One shekel in five is 20 per cent, the standard rate for loans of silver. On 36 shekels that comes to 7.2 shekels of interest. That figure is ours; the tablet gives only the rate.
The next line calls it “silver of pe-ru-ru-ti”. We could not explain the word. It looks Akkadian and may describe the silver or the kind of loan. We leave it untranslated.
No repayment date survives on the tablet.
The borrowers
Ur-Nusku’s name honours Nusku, the minister of Enlil, the chief god of Nippur. His title, nu-eš, is a Nippur priestly office. One of the witnesses, Lugal-magure, holds the same title.
But Ur-Nusku’s seal, rolled on the tablet, calls him something else: “Ur-Nusku, cupbearer, son of Lulubum.” A man could hold two titles, or his seal could date from an earlier post. The tablet does not explain.
The sign before his son’s name, Lu-Enlila, is broken. Nam-ušurdam is added with “and”. The Penn Museum’s catalogue describes the borrowers as a husband, wife and son. The tablet itself does not use the word “wife”, so we leave the relationship open.
Seven witnesses
“Ur-dingira, overseer of the ox-house; Namti-šumedu-ta; Ur-Damu; Lugal-usuše; Ursaga; Lugal-magure, the nu-eš priest; E-gissu: they are its witnesses.”
A few lines from the clay envelope also survive: “as a loan” and “E-gissu, the scribe”. So the last witness was probably also the man who wrote the contract.
What the tablet doesn’t tell us
We don’t know why a priest borrowed silver, or what he did with it.
We don’t know when it was due, or whether it was repaid.
We don’t know who Nam-ušurdam was.
And we don’t know who Ilum-bani, the lender, was. He has no title on the tablet.
Lending in Ur III Nippur
Loans between private people, sealed and witnessed, are well known from Ur III Nippur. The form here is the usual one: the amount, the rate, the lender, the borrowers, “received”, and the witnesses.
Earlier in this series, Twice the Barley recorded a barley loan at one-third interest, the usual rate for barley. Silver came cheaper, at one-fifth.
The tablet in full (our translation)
Front: 36 shekels (½ mina 6 shekels) of silver as an interest-bearing loan; interest: 1 shekel per 5 shekels; silver of pe-ru-ru-ti (?). From Ilum-bani, Ur-Nusku, the nu-eš priest, [and] Lu-Enlila, his son, and Nam-ušurdam received (it). 1 Ur-dingira, overseer of the ox-house;
Back: 1 Namti-šumedu-ta (?); 1 Ur-Damu; 1 Lugal-usuše; 1 Ursaga; 1 Lugal-magure, the nu-eš priest; 1 E-gissu: they are its witnesses. Month: Dukug, day 5 passed. Year: Šu-Suen (became) king.
Envelope (fragment): … as a loan; … 1 E-gissu, the scribe.
Seal: Ur-Nusku, cupbearer, son of Lulubum.
How we read it
Key lines in transliteration: 1/2(disz) ma-na 6(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar ur5-ra, “36 shekels of silver as an interest-bearing loan”; masz2 5(disz) gin2 1(disz) gin2-ta, “interest: 1 shekel per 5 shekels”; ur-{d}nusku nu-esz3, “Ur-Nusku, the nu-eš priest”; and, on the seal, ur-{d}nusku sagi, “Ur-Nusku, cupbearer”.
Uncertain: the phrase ku3 pe-ru-ru-ti; who Nam-ušurdam was; the broken sign before Lu-Enlila; and the reading of the witness name Namti-šumedu-ta.
Our confidence: medium-high. The loan formula is clear; one phrase and one relationship are not.
This translation is new and unofficial, made from the CDLI transliteration, and may contain errors. “Untranslated” means we found no translation on CDLI or in the tablet’s publication history (NATN, 1982, hand copies of Ur III tablets from Nippur in the Penn Museum; the Penn Museum’s catalogue gives a one-line description, not a translation). Dates use the conventional middle chronology and are approximate.