Real letters, lawsuits and contracts pulled from the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative — written in Mesopotamia between roughly 2450 and 1100 BC. Transliteration on the left; a plain-English reading on the right.
These tablets were selected automatically from ~135,000 transliterated documents by filtering for the most narrative genres (letters, legal verdicts, contracts) from the richest archive sites, then keeping the best-preserved examples. The English renderings below are my own working paraphrases from the transliteration — readable, not scholarly editions. Every card links to the tablet's page on cdli.earth, where you can see photos and published translations.
These three letters belong to the private archive of Ea-nāṣir of Ur — the same copper trader who received what's often called the oldest customer complaint in history (the furious tablet from a man named Nanni, now in the British Museum). His house yielded a whole stack of unhappy correspondence. Two of these are creditors leaning on him; in the third, Ea-nāṣir himself plays fixer.
obverse. To Ea-nāṣir, speak — thus says Arbi-Turam: Look, I make myself small (humble myself) at your side. You handed copper over to your own creditors, but to me you keep refusing to give any… reverse. Why have you not given me my copper? If you do not give it, I will haul in your pledges (seize your collateral). Give me this good copper, and send the man over.
obverse. To Ahu-kīnum, speak — thus says Lu-Amurru: Since the very day you set out on your journey, right behind you Imgur-Sîn came and said: "He owes a third of a mina of silver." And he has distrained your wife and your daughter (seized them as debt-pledges). reverse. Come back! Before your wife and your daughter die of hardship in the debtors' cell — get your wife and your daughter out! It's urgent!
obverse. To Ibbi-Ninšubur, speak — thus says Išum-ibni-šu: You claimed no one ever held you responsible for finishing the builders on the Karbilum job… reverse. Now I have put Sîn-šemi in charge of completing the builders. Do not come back and lay claim to the builders' compound. I wrote telling you to send the builders — you went, and you did not send them. You stripped off their garments, you forced them to pay out silver, and you dismissed the builders. And yet you write to me: "I have dispatched twenty-two builders to you."
Your servant Tarību — may I be a substitute for my lord. Thus to my lord: Concerning the offerings to Šamaš and Marduk about which my lord wrote — that "the food-ration is no good, the fine beer is not sweet, and the regular offering is poor" — why am I the one being blamed? Day and night I bear the guilt for my lord. How could I ever bring food that is not good and beer that is not sweet into my lord's temples? …(then he accounts for poultry): 10 ducks we spotted in the barley, sent to my lord; 5 ducks, 4 geese… total: 38 birds.
obverse. To …, speak — thus says …-bum: Why did no one report this to the "Father of the Amorites" (the chief officer)? When you came here, why did you not tell the king and the Amorite-father? Men who were listed on the old tablet as veteran troops have now been freshly re-entered as "new recruits." …How could I, without the authority of the king and the Amorite-father, (move) as many as need transferring?
obverse. Say to Lugalmu: There were 4 iku of land — the subsistence plot of Ur-dingira — in your field at Kamari. From the year Šu-Suen became king, Lu-Ninazu was installed (over it). reverse. Long ago, my master gave those 4 iku of the Latur field to Ur-dingira, and Ur-dingira worked that field… (then the dispute over who works which strips, and who failed to show up).
Ea-ṣilli by name, slave of Ku-Ningal. After Ku-Ningal went to the fate of all mankind (i.e. died), in the 20th year that had elapsed — from Ea-gamil, brother of Ku-Ningal, and the sons of Ku-Ningal — for his redemption they handed over one male slave named Warad-Haya, and so he redeemed himself. In future, neither Ea-gamil nor the sons of Ku-Ningal shall have any claim against Ea-ṣilli… "He is a slave of the father's house" — they shall not (re-)enslave him. By Nanna, Šamaš, and king Rīm-Sîn they swore.
A built house of ⅔ sar belonging to Asa — Enentarzi, the temple administrator (sanga) of the god Ningirsu, bought it. Its price: 15 gur of barley (royal measure). Its (customary) gifts: 1 bardul-garment, 1 sila of pig-fat, 1 jug of beer, 30 durunna-loaves, 5 fine loaves — Asa received (them). (Smaller payments follow to others present.)
Concerning a field that Apil-ilišu had taken under a later inheritance-tablet, then sold for silver — Šumum-libši, the eldest brother, who holds the earlier inheritance-tablet, informed the judges. He argued: "You are relying on this later tablet — but the later division was (only) drawn up to give everything to Apil-ilišu. Summon the witnesses to that later division and hear from their own lips." So the witnesses were called, and the judges weighed their testimony.
Idin-Šamaš the eldest, Ubar-Šamaš, Ṣilli-Šamaš and Ninurta-gamil his brothers — heirs of Enlil-rabi — to Beltani, naditu-priestess of Ninurta, their sister: every year they shall supply 2 gur 2 barig of barley, 8 sila of oil, and 8 mina of wool. Should the heirs fail to deliver the barley-, oil- and wool-rations, they forfeit their inheritance. (Witnessed by chief singers, doorkeepers and a scribe.)
Concerning a built house of 1½ sar belonging to Nanna-lu-sa and his son Nawirum-ilī… Nanna-lu-sa and his son confronted the king (the court). Their witnesses came forward… and they were confirmed before the king. The king then handed the witnesses over to the Dublamah (Ur's great oath-shrine) to swear the decisory oath — there, inside the Dublamah, they cut the oath.
A son, Šalurum, writes anxiously to his father, invoking Enlil, Ninurta and Enki to keep him alive — then reports the estate's livestock: "140 oxen are standing, 49 oxen are dead (ririga)." Send someone, he begs, so the slaves don't die too. Estate management and a family under strain.
Lamassum, a lukur (naditu) priestess of Ninurta and daughter of Enlil-mansum, purchases a built house for 14 shekels of silver from three brothers — a woman acting as an independent property owner.
A dense Sumerian letter-order about barley that isn't in the granary, a field that must be taken over for ploughing, a cook, fish and flour — punctuated by a-ma-ru-kam, "it is urgent!" A vivid snapshot of agricultural panic.
More from the Ur copper trade: Sîn-iribam tells Adâ not to neglect the household, warns of a runaway slave, and frets over sesame and a debt of a mina of silver — the texture of a merchant family's daily worries.