Position in chronology
Adab 1067
About this tablet
A small administrative tablet from Adab in southern Iraq, written under the kings of Akkad (c. 2300–2150 BCE). It records a modest issue of oil — three jars of four sila each — to a man named Ur-Utu, who held the title 'overseer of the great boats,' in connection with the sea, presumably provisioning a vessel or voyage bound for the Gulf. A palace cupbearer whose name is partly broken acted as the responsible official (maškim) guaranteeing the transaction. Tiny as it is, the tablet is a glimpse of Adab's stake in long-distance river and sea traffic, and of the bureaucratic habit of naming a named officer to stand behind every disbursement.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Three jars of oil, four sila apiece, were issued to Ur-Utu, the officer in charge of the large boats, for the sea run; the verb recording the handover is broken but says he was given it. On the back, the transaction is countersigned: a man whose name survives only as Lu-…-zi, the cupbearer, was the official responsible for it. The record is dated to the month Še-sag-sa'a.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3 jars of oil, 4 sila (each); (for) Ur-Utu, overseer of the great boats, for the sea — he [delivered/issued] to him. (reverse) [...] Lu-x-zi, the cupbearer, is its commissioner (maškim). Month: še-sag-sa₆-ga.
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) i3 dug 4(disz) sila3 ur-utu ugula ma2 gal-gal-la a-ab-sze3 mu#-na-[...] [...] lu2-x-zi sagi maszkim-bi iti sze#-sag#-sa6#-ga#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 1067. 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 (P217623) — 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.