Index of English Translations of Sumerian Clay 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.
“1 gur of barley as a loan; its interest, 1 barig 4 ban per gur.”
What we read here is the outside of an envelope. Ur III scribes often wrote a contract on a small tablet, wrapped it in a thin layer of clay, wrote the text again on the outside and rolled a seal over it. If there was a dispute, the envelope could be broken open and the inner tablet read. CDLI describes this one as an unopened envelope: the inner tablet has never been seen.
It comes from Nippur, in what is now southern Iraq, and is dated to day 2 of the tenth month in Amar-Suen’s fourth year, around 2043 BC.
The loan
“1 gur of barley as a loan; its interest, 1 barig 4 ban per gur; from Lugal-azida: Lu-Inanna received it. In the month of bricks he is to return it. Zini and Lugal-magure are its witnesses.”
One gur is 300 litres; 1 barig 4 ban is 100 litres. So the interest is one third, the usual rate for barley loans at this time, and Lu-Inanna owed 400 litres. The month of bricks, sig4-ga, is the third month of the next year, about five months away, after the barley harvest.
The seal on the outside
The envelope carries the borrower’s seal: “Lu-Inanna, son of Ur-[…]”. The father’s name is damaged; it may be Ur-Baba. By rolling his seal over the clay, Lu-Inanna accepted the debt in front of his two witnesses.
The same lender
Lugal-azida also appears as the lender in the previous post of this series, seven years later, lending silver to Ur-Šauša and Šeškalla. Both tablets come from Nippur. Here we are speculating, but this is probably the same man.
What the tablet doesn’t tell us
We don’t know whether the inner tablet says exactly what the envelope says. Usually the two agree, but no one can check without breaking it.
We don’t know why it was never opened. An unopened envelope may mean that no dispute ever arose. It may also mean that the record was simply kept, paid or not.
And we don’t know who Zini and Lugal-magure were.
The tablet in full (our translation)
Envelope, front: 1 gur of barley as a loan; its interest, 1 barig 4 ban per gur; from Lugal-azida: Lu-Inanna received it.
Envelope, back: In the month of bricks he is to return it. Zini and Lugal-magure are its witnesses. Month Kug-sim, day 2 passed. Year En-mahgal-ana was installed.
Seal: Lu-Inanna, son of Ur-[Baba?].
How we read it
Key lines in transliteration: masz2 1(barig) 4(ban2)-ta-am3, “its interest, 1 barig 4 ban per gur”; and iti sig4-ga gi4-gi4-dam, “in the month of bricks it is to be returned”.
Uncertain: the father’s name on the seal, and whether the inner tablet matches the envelope.
Our confidence: high. The envelope text is complete and standard.
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 (Owen), transliterations of Nippur Ur III texts). Private loans from Ur III Nippur have been studied as a group (for example by S. J. Garfinkle); we have not checked whether this tablet is quoted there. Dates use the conventional middle chronology and are approximate.
For the full description of sources, method, uncertainties, dating conventions, limitations, and how to report corrections, see About the Translations and Methodology.