Position in chronology
Anonymous 271226
About this tablet
A workforce ration account from the Old Akkadian period (ca. 2300 BCE), probably from Umma in southern Iraq. It lists gangs of female laborers under named overseers, records their barley allotments, and notes losses to the roster: one worker died, and two others ran away. Such 'ba-zah3' (fled) entries are precious evidence that forced or semi-free laborers in early Mesopotamia sometimes escaped — and that the administration tracked them like any other asset.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A personnel and ration ledger. Under the overseer Mama-ummi: two women, each drawing one barig of barley, and one girl drawing two ban. Under the overseer Dar: one person died and one woman ran away. Under the overseer Nin-girgal: two women on the books, and one woman who fled. A final gang follows under another overseer whose name is broken, and the rest of the tablet is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 2 female workers: 1 barig (of barley each); 2. 1 girl: 2 ban; 3. overseer: Mama-ummi. 4. 1 ... died; 5. 1 female worker fled; 6. overseer: Dar. 7. 2 female workers; 8. overseer: Nin-girgal. 9. 1 female worker fled; 10. overseer: ... [...] 11. [...] (rest broken)
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
2(asz@c) geme2 1(barig@c) 1(asz@c) dumu-munus 2(ban2@c) ugula ma-ma-um-mi 1(disz) x ba-usz2 1(asz@c) geme2 ba-zah3 ugula dar 2(asz@c) geme2 ugula nin-gir2-gal 1(asz@c) geme2 ba#-zah3 ugula x [...] [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Anonymous 271226. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: private: anonymous, unlocated (P271226) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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