Position in chronology
AS 17, 09
About this tablet
A short Sargonic-period account from Nippur, in central Iraq, tracking fruit from an orchard around 2300 BCE. A scribe logs one lot of 371 apples that came in "not counted," then six successive smaller consignments — 73, 68, 57, 49, 18 and 20 — before totalling everything at 656 pieces of fruit under the name of a man called Išar-bēlī, with a matching total of 656 figs. The numbers actually add up (371 + 285 = 656), which is a small pleasure: this is a working ledger, checked by its own scribe. A stray line mentioning pine shows the orchard yielded more than fruit.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The account opens with 371 apples delivered but never tallied on arrival. Then come six further batches, counted in order: 73 in the first, 68 in the second, 57 in the third, 49 in the fourth, 18 in the fifth and 20 in the sixth. A line about pine follows, with a figure of 25 or so that is too damaged to read with confidence. The ledger then closes with two grand totals — 656 apples, charged to Išar-bēlī, and 656 figs, likewise recorded as brought out. The apple figure matches the individual entries exactly.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 371 apples — 2. they were brought out; not counted. 3. 73 (+ n?) — this is (of) the first (batch) 4. 68 — for the second 5. 60 minus 3 (= 57) — for the third 6. 50 minus 1 (= 49) — for the fourth 7. 20 minus 2 (= 18) — for the fifth 8. 20 — for the sixth 9. (......) pine 10. [n] 25(?) (......) 11. Total: 656 apples — 12. Išar-bēlī. 13. Total: 656 figs — 14. they were brought out.
Our translation engine — Opus 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
6(gesz2) 1(u)# 1(disz)#? haszhur ab-ta-e3# nu-szid 1(gesz2) 1(u) 3(disz) n? sag-ga2-kam 1(gesz2) 8(disz) 2(disz)-kam-sze3 1(gesz2) la2 3(disz) 3(disz)-kam-sze3 5(u) la2 1(disz) 4(disz)-kam-sze3 2(u) la2 2(disz) 5(disz)-kam-sze3 2(u) 6(disz)-kam-sze3 () u3-suh5 [n] 2(u) 5(disz)? () szunigin 1(gesz'u) 5(u) 6(disz) haszhur i-szar-be-li2 szunigin 1(gesz'u) 5(u) 6(disz) pesz3 ab-ta-e3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — AS 17, 09. 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 (P212540) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
Related tablets
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.