Position in chronology
Adab 0718
About this tablet
A barley account from the city of Adab in southern Iraq, written during the Old Akkadian period (c. 2300 BCE). An official named Ur-Mamu took charge of about nineteen gur of barley — several thousand liters — drawn from named individuals, including one whose name honors Ašgi, the local god of Adab, and a cupbearer. The tablet then balances the books: most of the grain was repaid, and Ur-Mamu is held personally responsible for the shortfall. It is a vivid example of how ancient administrators tracked debts and deficits down to the last measure.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a grain ledger. Incoming: 10 gur of barley issued by Nasa-..., 6 gur from Ašgi-pa'e, and 4 shekels of silver converted into 3 gur of barley, connected with [En]lile and a cupbearer whose name is partly lost. Grand total: 19 gur of barley, received by Ur-Mamu. On the other side of the account: 16 gur, tied to the E-GAN-canal estate, were paid back. That leaves a shortfall of about 3 gur and 2 barig of barley, and Ur-Mamu is the one on the hook for it.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) 10 gur of barley, issue(?) of Nasa-...; 6 (gur): Ašgi-pa'e; 4 shekels of silver — its barley (equivalent): 3 gur — [En]lile, [...]...-ni, the cupbearer. Total: 20 minus 1 (= 19) gur of barley. Ur-Mamu received (it). (reverse) Therefrom: 16 (gur): (the estate) E-GAN-i(?); returned (repaid) into the hand. Deficit: [3 gur 2 barig of barley] — Ur-Mamu.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(u@c) sze gur e3 na-sa-x 6(asz@c) aszgi2-pa-e3 4(asz@c) gin2 ku3-babbar sze-bi 3(asz@c) gur [en?]-lil2-le [...] x-ni sagi szunigin 2(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) sze gur ur-ma-mu szu ba-ti sza3-bi-ta 1(u) 6(asz@c) e2-GAN2#-i7 szu-a gi4-a! la2#-ia3# [3(asz) 2(barig) sze gur] ur-ma-mu#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 0718. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P217506) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.