Position in chronology
CST 204
About this tablet
This is a short administrative note from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly 2300–2150 BCE. Its origin is unknown and it is now at Claremont, California. It lists oxen and donkeys against the names of individuals, including Ur-pirig-tur. The phrase 'man who bought a house' near the top suggests the animals were connected with a property purchase, perhaps as payment or as a record of who owned what. The tablet is too broken to say exactly what the transaction was.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The first part of the record is lost. What survives begins with a reference to a man who bought a house. It then records the animals: one ox and one donkey for Ur-ga₂; four oxen (the number is slightly damaged) for Ur-pirig-tur; and ten oxen and two donkeys for I-ta-… and Ur-ga₂-…, whose names are partly broken off. The text breaks off after that.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Beginning destroyed) 1′. [...] 2′. man (who) bought a house (lit. 'man of the purchased house'); 3′. 1 ox, 1 donkey: 4′. Ur-ga₂[?]; 5′. 4[?] oxen: Ur-pirig-tur; 6′. 10 [oxen], 7′. 2 donkeys: 8′. I-ta-[x] (and) 9′. Ur-ga₂-[x]. (Rest destroyed or not provided)
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
[...] lu2 e2 sa10# 1(asz@c) gu4 1(asz@c) ansze ur-ga2#? 4(asz@c)#? gu4# ur-pirig-tur 1(u@c) [gu4] 2(asz@c) ansze i3-ta#-[x] ur-ga2#-[x]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — CST 204. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, California, USA (P462409) — 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.