Position in chronology
Adab 0850
About this tablet
This is a small bookkeeping tablet from the Sumerian city of Adab in southern Iraq, written in the time of the Akkadian empire (about 2300–2150 BCE). It lists items or entries in separate boxes, each with a number, and then gives a grand total of 95. Several words are broken, so we can't tell what was being counted. One entry names poplar, a common building timber, so the list may cover wood or other materials. Tablets like this were the everyday paperwork of the officials who ran Adab's households and workshops.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a tally sheet. It starts with 2 of something written with a rare, unclear sign. Next come 4 marked 'i-zi', 12 of an item whose name is broken except for its last syllable '-ri', and 1 'zinitum'. Then come some poplar, though the number is lost, and another item ending in '-am' whose count is also missing. On the back is a broken entry that reads something like 'igi-še ra-a'. The list closes with a total of 95. Much of the rest of the back is blank.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse(?) 2 ... |UMBIN×LU| (meaning unclear) 4 i-zi 12 [...]-ri 1 zi-ni-tum [...] poplar(s) [...]-am Reverse(?) [...] igi-še ra-a(?) (Total:) 95
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
2(disz)# x |UMBINxLU| 4(disz) i-zi 1(u) 2(disz) [...]-ri 1(disz) zi-ni-tum [...] ildag [...]-am3 [...] igi-sze3 ra-a? 1(gesz2) 3(u) 5(disz)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 0850. 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 (P217549) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.