Position in chronology
Anonymous 271232
About this tablet
An administrative account from the Old Akkadian period (later third millennium BCE), probably from Umma in southern Iraq. A scribe is booking out quantities of a foodstuff and of bread, together with a small group of servants, against named individuals — one of them bearing the good Akkadian name Rāši-ilum, 'He-has-acquired-a-god'. The tablet is badly worn, but it belongs to the everyday paperwork of a large household or institution keeping track of rations and personnel.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a ledger entry, much of it now rubbed away. After a lost opening line and a word or name (Izi-ḫu), it records: 3 ban (about 18 liters) of a foodstuff, in connection with the plow, issued to Rāši-ilum; then, after three illegible signs and an unclear word, 5 sila (about 5 liters) of the same foodstuff and 4 servants; then 2 ban more of it, a figure of 5 of something now lost, and a broken word. A final run of entries lists 2 ban of bread, another 2 ban of bread, 2 further units of bread, and a quantity of 20 of something — but the ends of these lines are broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [...] ... 2. Izi-ḫu (?) 3. 3 ban of LAK720 (a foodstuff), 4. (for) the plow, 5. (to) Rāši-ilum; 6. ... ... ... (three illegible signs) 7. zi-ra (?); 8. 5 sila of LAK720, 9. 4 servants; 10. 2 ban of LAK720, 11. 5 [...] 12. NE-[...] 13. 2 ban of bread [...], 2 ban of bread [...], 2 (units of) bread ... [...] 14. 20 [...] ... [...]
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
[...] x i-zi-hu 3(ban2@c) LAK720 apin ra-szi-dingir x x x zi-ra 5(disz@t) sila3 LAK720 4(asz@c) _ARAD2_ 2(ban2@c) LAK720 5(disz@t) [...] NE#-[...] 2(ban2@c) ninda [...] 2(ban2@c) ninda [...] 2(asz@c) ninda x [...] 2(u)# [...] x [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Anonymous 271232. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: private: anonymous, unlocated (P271232) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-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.