Position in chronology
Adab 0901
About this tablet
A food-supply record from the Sargonic period, the age of the Akkadian empire around 2300–2200 BCE, found at the Sumerian city of Adab in southern Iraq. It lists flour, groats, beer-bread, malt and fish provided for groups of people counted as 'consumers', and one group is linked to Akkade, the imperial capital. The note that the goods were 'returned' suggests a provisioning account that was closed or handed back. The tablet shows how a provincial city fed people connected with the central Akkadian state.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Just over a thousand liters of barley flour went to feed 69 people from Akkade. A further batch of groats went to 48 people; the first part of that figure is broken away. The account also lists 4 containers of beer-bread, 7 containers of malt and 2 lots of fish, intended for something called the sa-ZI.ZI. On the back, the scribe notes that the goods were returned and that this is the account for a particular occasion or trip, but the number of that occasion is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 3 gur 2 barig 1 ban 5 sila of dabin-flour (for) 69 consumers, (of) Akkade; [...] 1 gur 2 barig of groats (nig2-ar3-ra), (for) 48 consumers; 4 gurdub-containers of beer-bread; 7 gurdub-containers of malt; 2 (units) of fish, for the sa-ZI.ZI (?). Reverse Returned. It is (the account) of the [...] time.
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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Transliteration
3(asz@c) 2(barig@c) 1(ban2@c) dabin gur 5(disz@t) sila3 1(gesz2) 1(u) la2 1(disz@t) nag a-ga-de3 [...] 1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) nig2-ar3-ra gur 5(u) la2 2(disz@t) nag 4(asz@c) gurdub bappir 7(asz@c) gurdub munu4 2(asz@c) ku6 sa |ZI&ZI|-sze3 szu#-a gi4-a a-ra2# [...]-a-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 0901. 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 (P217568) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-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.