Position in chronology
BuB 2, 11
About this tablet
This is a small receipt from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, written in the time of the Akkad dynasty (about 2300–2150 BCE). A man named Dada, son of Namzi, takes 3 gur of fine flour, measured by the standard gur of the period, from another man and promises to hand it over when the accounts are settled. Short records like this show how Sargonic-era officials tracked goods between people and held them responsible at the next audit. The last line, '4 years, 8 months', is probably a period of time or a date. It is not a regnal year-name.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Receipt: Dada, son of Namzi, received 3 gur of fine flour from Dingir-sa₆, measured by the proper standard gur. He will hand it over when the accounts are settled. Noted: 4 years and 8 months.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse / continuous text (8 lines): 1. 3 gur of fine flour, in the sag-gal₂ gur, correct (measure), 2. from Dingir-sa₆, 3. Dada, 4. son of Namzi, 5. received. 6. At the place of the accounting 7. he will deliver (it) to him. 8. 4 years, 8 months.
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. 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
3(asz@c) zi3 sig15 gur sag-gal2 si-sa2 ki dingir-sa6-ta da-da dumu nam-zi-ke4 szu ba-ti ki nig2-ka9-ka i3-na-ga2-ga2 4(disz@t) mu 8(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — BuB 2, 11. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P214935) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (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.