Position in chronology
CUSAS 26, 221
About this tablet
This is a labour roster from Ur, written in the time of the Akkadian empire (about 2300–2150 BCE). It lists work gangs of able-bodied men (gurus), each under a named team leader, and then gives a grand total of 418 workmen and 9 foremen, with the name Ur-sag-Utu, probably the official in charge of the whole group. Rosters like this show how the Akkadian state and the temple or palace households of Ur counted and organised large labour forces, perhaps for farming or building work. Several entries are lost, and the fragmentary last line starts another count of workers.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The start of the list is lost. After that, the tablet counts work gangs: a gang of twelve-plus men under Lugal-DIRI-DI, forty-six men under Dingir-nu-mea, and another gang of at least twenty men whose leader's name is broken off. The total is 418 workmen organised under 9 foremen, and the name Ur-sag-Utu follows, probably the man responsible for the whole workforce. After a damaged line, a new entry begins with a count of more than fifty workmen, followed by a broken reference that may be to a seah measure of grain and to 'heads'. The rest can't be read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Beginning destroyed) [...] ... [...] ... 2 [...] ... [...+]12 workmen: Lugal-DIRI-DI 46 workmen: Dingir-nu-mea [...+]20[+...] [...] Total: 7 sixties less 2 (= 418) workmen, 9 foremen; Ur-sag-Utu. [...] ... [...] 5[x+]1 workmen, [...?] seah(?) [...] head(s)(?) [...?]
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
[...] x [...] n 2(asz@c) [...] x n 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) gurusz lugal-DIRI-DI 4(u@c) 6(asz@c) gurusz dingir-nu-me-a n 2(u@c)# [...] szu-nigin2 7(gesz2) la2 2(disz) gurusz 9(disz@t) ugula ur-sag-utu [...] x [...] 5(u@c) n 1(asz@c) gurusz# [x?] ban#? [...] sag [x?]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC) ?) — CUSAS 26, 221. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P467743) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (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.