Position in chronology
Adab 1099
About this tablet
An everyday accounting tablet from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, written at Adab in southern Iraq. It records barley issued as fodder or rations for animals — a damaged first entry for about ten of something, and a single ox — with the amounts totalled at the end. The grain is measured by the standard of Agade, Sargon's capital, and the disbursement is booked under an official with the memorable name Bizaza, 'Frog.' Small records like this are how the Akkadian empire's provincial economy was actually run.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A ration account: some ten animals (the first entry is broken) received 4 gur and 3 ban of barley by the Agade standard, and one ox received 2 barig and 3 ban. The grand total comes to 4 gur 3 barig of barley, Agade measure — the two entries add up exactly. The grain was booked as an outgoing expenditure under Bizaza, at Adab.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 1. 10(?) [...] ..., 2. their barley ration: 4 gur 3 ban (in the measure) of Agade; 3. 1 ox, 4. its barley ration: 2 barig 3 ban. 5. Total: 4 gur 3 barig of barley (in the measure) of Agade, 6. expenditure of Bizaza, 7. in Adab.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(u@c)#? [...] x _sze-ba-bi 4(asz@c) 3(ban2@c) gur_ a-ga-de3 1(asz@c) _gu4_ _sze-ba-bi_ 2(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) szunigin 4(asz@c) 3(barig@c) _sze gur_ a-ga-de3 _e3# bi2-za-za_ in# adab
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 1099. 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 (P217630) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-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.