Position in chronology
Adab 0948
About this tablet
This is a short grain account from Adab (modern Bismaya, southern Iraq), written in the Sargonic period, around 2300–2200 BCE. It records how much barley went to feed fattened oxen and how much went to two named people, Lugal-gude'a and In-u. There are two similar blocks, which probably cover two monthly periods. The last line gives the name Bizaza, who seems to be the official responsible for issuing the grain. Small tablets like this show how the local administration kept track of livestock and its staff one ration at a time.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two barig and three ban of barley (about 150 liters) went to feed the fattened oxen, and Lugal-gude'a received 3 ban (about 30 liters). That covers one month. In the next entry, the fattened oxen again get 2 barig 3 ban and Lugal-gude'a again gets 3 ban. In-u also receives 2 ban (about 20 liters). Bizaza issued the grain.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 2 barig 3 ban of barley (for) fattened oxen; 3 ban: Lugal-gude'a. Total: 1 month. (Reverse / continuation) 2 barig 3 ban: fattened oxen [grain-fed]; 3 ban: Lugal-[gu]de'a; 2 ban: In-u. Issued (by) Bizaza.
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
2(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) sze gu4 niga 3(ban2@c) lugal-gu3-de2-a szu 1(disz@t) iti 2(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) gu4 [niga] 3(ban2@c) lugal-[gu3]-de2-a 2(ban2@c) in-u e3 bi2-za-za
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 0948. 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 (P217584) — 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.