Position in chronology
Adab 0947
About this tablet
This is a short food-issue record from the Sargonic period (about 2300–2150 BCE) from the Sumerian city of Adab, which is modern Bismaya in Iraq. It lists different kinds of flour and groats handed out for the governor's table, plus a small portion for a man called Ur-še, who is described as a priest's attendant. The two totals keep two kinds of goods apart, and the record is closed by the name of the official responsible. The reference to Agade shows how the capital of the Akkadian empire reached into the bookkeeping of a provincial kitchen.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Issued for the governor's table: 12 sila of fine flour of the Agade type, 13 sila of gu-flour, some groats (the amount is broken off) and 4 sila of arzana-groats. Ur-še, the nu-eš priest's man, also got 5 sila of the Agade-type flour. That comes to 17 sila of fine flour in total, plus 25 sila of barley-based products. Sipa-anne signed these off as expended.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 1 ban 2 sila of za-flour (of the) Agade (standard/type); 1 ban 3 sila of gu-flour; [n sila] of groats; 4 sila of arzana-groats: (for) the table of the governor. 5 sila of za-flour: Ur-še, his man, the nu-eš priest. Reverse Total: 1 ban 7 sila of za-flour; [to]tal: 2 ban 5 sila of barley (products). [Ex]pended by Sipa-anne.
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
1(ban2@c) 2(disz) sila3 zi3 za a-ga-de3 1(ban2@c) 3(disz) sila3 zi3-gu [n sila3] nig2-ar3-ra 4(disz) sila3 ar-za-na banszur ensi2 5(disz) sila3 zi3 za ur3-sze3 lu2-ni nu-esz3 szunigin 1(ban2@c) 7(disz)# sila3 zi3 za [szu] nigin2# 2(ban2@c) 5(disz) sila3 sze [zi]-ga sipa-an-ne2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 0947. 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 (P217583) — 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.