Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/3, pl. 245, Bod S 295
About this tablet
A small receipt or disbursement note from Umma in southern Iraq, written in the Sargonic period (about 2300–2200 BCE), when the kings of Akkad ruled Mesopotamia. It lists the ingredients of brewing and baking: beer-bread, groats, malt, ordinary flour and fine flour. These were issued to or booked under a man named Mama-hursag. The quantities are measured by the 'gur of Akkade', the imperial capacity standard. That detail shows the Akkadian state's system of measures reaching down into everyday provincial bookkeeping.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Mama-hursag is booked for a set of brewing and baking supplies: two barig each of beer-bread, groats, malt and flour, all measured by the Akkad standard, plus two ban of fine flour. In total that comes to 1 gur, 3 barig and 2 ban of flour by the Akkad gur, of which 2 ban is fine flour. Dated the third year, seventh month.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse: 2 barig of beer-bread (bappir), (by the measure of) Akkade; 2 barig of groats (nig-ar-ra); 2 barig of malt; 2 barig of flour; 2 ban of fine flour: Mama-hursag. Reverse: Total: 1 gur 3 barig 2 ban of flour, (by the) gur of Akkade; (including) 2 ban of fine flour. Year 3, month 7 (month-sign ITI×(UD×S×TIL)).
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Engine notes
read from photo5 uncertain terms ↓
- bappir a-ga-de3 — 'Akkadian bappir' — bappir is standardly translated 'beer-bread' (a fermentation ingredient); the qualifier a-ga-de3 ('of Akkad/Akkadian') likely denotes a specific quality or recipe type. The precise distinction from other bappir types is not fully understood.
- nig2-ar3-ra — Conventionally translated 'groats' (coarsely ground grain). Some scholars render it 'flour of a specific grade'; context supports the groats reading here.
- zi3-sig15@v — 'Fine flour' or 'sifted flour'; the sign value sig15 with the @v modifier indicates a specific high-quality milled product. The exact grade and its cultic or ration use remain debated.
- ITIx(|UDxsxTIL|) — A compound month sign, one of the Akkadian-period month names at Umma. The precise month name it encodes is not universally agreed; cannot verify the exact sign cluster from the photograph at this resolution.
- 3(disz@t) mu 7(disz@g) — '3rd year, 7th month' — the regnal year is not identified with a specific king in this tablet; it would have been understood by contemporary readers from context. Cannot determine whose reign from this text alone.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows two faces of a small, well-preserved lenticular/bun-shaped tablet with clearly ruled horizontal lines. The wedge impressions are legible across most of the surface, though some signs in the lower right corner of the obverse are slightly eroded. The museum label '8295' (read as 'S 295' in the catalog) is visible on the left edge piece. On the obverse I can make out repeated sign groups consistent with capacity measures (the barig and ban notation) followed by commodity signs; the groupings align well with the transliteration's four 2-barig entries plus a 2-ban entry. The personal name Mama-ḫursag is visible as a two-line group. The reverse shows the summary line and date formula; the large numeral groups and the ITI (month) sign are discernible, consistent with the transliteration. The month sign ITIx(|UDxSTIL|) is a compound sign for a specific month name that cannot be fully resolved from the photo at this resolution. The Akkadian-period Umma provenance is consistent with the sign forms and the mention of 'Akkadian-type' bappir, which is a known commodity distinction in this corpus.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 4.6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 12, 2026 · 2726 in / 967 out tokens
Transliteration
2(barig@c) bappir a-ga-de3 2(barig@c) nig2-ar3-ra 2(barig@c) munu4 2(barig@c) zi3 2(ban2@c) zi3-sig15@v ma-ma-hur-sag szunigin 1(asz@c) 3(barig@c) 2(ban2@c) zi3 gur a-ga-de3 2(ban2@c) zi3-sig15@v 3(disz@t) mu 7(disz@g) ITIx(|UDxsxTIL|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — AAICAB 1/3, pl. 245, Bod S 295. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P249200) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.