Position in chronology
CST 007
About this tablet
A short Sargonic-period account, from around 2300–2200 BCE and probably from the Umma region of southern Iraq. It lists what was still owed or missing from the rations of a work team of 28 men: barley, oil, dried fish and salt. The deficit had built up over about three years and eleven months. Documents like this show how the administration of the Akkad empire kept track of rations owed to labour gangs over several years, and recorded who was still responsible for what had not been delivered.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Outstanding balance: 33 gur 3 barig of barley, one jar of oil (2 sila short), 5 gur 1 barig 2 ban of dried fish (the type of fish can't be read), and 3 gur 1 barig 5 ban of salt, 1 sila short. These are the rations for a team of 28 men of Zaturtur. The shortfall covers three years and remains outstanding in the city of Umma. They brought it in. Period covered: three years and eleven months.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse / Reverse (lines numbered sequentially; the source gives no side markers) 1. Deficit: 33 gur 3 barig of barley, 2. 1 jar less 2 sila of oil, 3. 5 gur 1 barig 2 ban[?] of ...... dried fish, 4. 3 gur 1 barig 5 ban less 1 sila, gur-measure, of salt: 5. barley rations (for) 28 men, Zaturtur(-people). 6. Deficit[?] ... 7. of[?] 3 years. 8. (In the) city of Umma 9. it is (still) outstanding. 10. They 11. brought (it) in. 12. 3 years, 11 months.
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
la2-ia3 3(u@c) 3(asz@c) 3(barig@c) sze gur 1(asz@c) dug la2 2(disz@t) sila3 i3 5(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 2(ban2@c)#? x ku6 had2 3(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 5(ban2@c) la2 1(disz) sila3 gur mun sze-ba 3(u) la2 2(disz@t) lu2 za-tur-tur la3#?-ia3 () _szu#_ 3(disz@t) mu _al_ umma _i-ba-sze3_ en-ne-ne mu-kux(DU) 3(disz@t) mu 1(u) 1(disz@t) itix(|UD@sxBAD|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — CST 007. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (P212932) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (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.