Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/4, Bod S 340
About this tablet
An account of flour and grain from the Sargonic period, the time of the Akkadian empire (around 2300–2150 BCE). It lists several grades of milled cereal in the Akkadian capacity system: a fine flour named after the imperial capital Akkade, a second flour type, coarse barley flour, and barley set aside for malt flour. The final line, '2 years, 2 months', suggests the entries cover a long accounting period or a long-term allowance. The worn reverse probably named the responsible person or purpose, but it can no longer be read.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The obverse lists a stock of milled grain: 1 barig and 3 ban of fine 'Akkade-style' flour, 1 gur and 1 barig of gu-flour, 3 gur of coarse barley flour, and 2 gur and about 3 ban of barley for making malt flour. Another small entry of 2 ban follows, but its description is mostly illegible. The reverse is so worn that only a possible 1 barig of something survives. The text ends by stating the period covered: two years and two months.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 1 barig 3 ban of fine flour of Akkade(-type); 1 gur 1 barig of gu-flour; 3 gur of barley flour (dabin); 2 gur 3(?) ban of barley for malt flour; 2 ban ... [AN?] ... la ... (Lower edge / reverse, badly worn) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1 barig(?) ... ... ... ... (for) 2 years (and) 2 months.
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 photo7 uncertain terms ↓
- a-ga-de3 — Agade / Akkad — the Akkadian imperial capital. Its role here (provenance of flour, destination, or administrative label) is unclear from the fragmentary context.
- zi3-sig15 — Conventionally 'fine flour' or 'pure/white flour'; the precise grade designation is debated in the literature.
- zi3-gu — 'Chickpea flour' or 'legume flour'; gu can refer to various legumes, chickpea being most common in this context.
- dabin — Usually rendered 'semolina' or 'groats'; a coarse-ground grain product, exact milling grade uncertain.
- sze zi3-munu4 — 'Malt flour' — flour produced from malted grain, used in brewing or baking. The compound is well-attested but the exact line reading is marked uncertain (#?) in the transliteration.
- 2 mu 2 iti — '2 years, 2 months' — a time notation common in Akkadian administrative documents; whether this is a duration, a date reference, or a loan term is unclear without more context.
- Lines 5–8 (heavily broken) — Multiple signs marked x or with # in the transliteration; content irrecoverable from both photo and transliteration as provided.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows a small, roughly lenticular clay tablet displayed from multiple angles (obverse, reverse, and edges), bearing the museum number '5340' written in modern ink on the lower edge fragment. The obverse (upper central image) preserves several lines of cuneiform wedges that are partially legible: I can make out what appear to be capacity measure signs (the large circular/semi-circular impressions characteristic of Akkadian-period grain measures) alongside sign groups consistent with zi3-sig15, and what may be the GUR container sign. The signs are moderately well-preserved but the surface shows erosion and some chipping, particularly toward the lower lines. The reverse (lower large image) is heavily worn and the signs are almost entirely illegible from the photograph. The left and right edge fragments show a few sign impressions but are too worn and cropped to read confidently. The transliteration's commodity terms (zi3-sig15, zi3-gu, dabin, sze zi3-munu4) and capacity notations align broadly with what the obverse wedge patterns suggest, but lines 5–8 cannot be verified from the photo due to damage. The final line '2 mu 2 iti' (2 years, 2 months) is a standard Akkadian administrative time notation. The mention of a-ga-de3 (Agade) is notable but its syntactic role — origin, destination, or institutional affiliation — is unclear from the surviving context.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 4.6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 12, 2026 · 3075 in / 1067 out tokens
Transliteration
1(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) zi3-sig15 a-ga-de3 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) zi3-gu gur 3(asz@c) dabin gur 2(asz@c) 3(ban2@c)#? sze zi3-munu4 gur 2(ban2@c) x x x AN#? x la# A# x x x x x x x x x x 1(barig@c)? x x x x 2(disz) mu# 2(disz) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — AAICAB 1/4, Bod S 340. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P368469) — 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.