Position in chronology
CUSAS 26, 240
About this tablet
This is a short bookkeeping note from Ur in southern Iraq, written in Sumerian during the Old Akkadian period, around 2300–2200 BCE, when the kings of Akkad ruled Mesopotamia. It records what a few named people received: a large amount of barley went to one man, and copper was weighed out in minas and shekels to two others. The last entry ties 2 barig of barley to an earlier measuring-out of the same amount. The note shows barley and copper serving side by side as the everyday goods of a Mesopotamian household or institution.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Urrani received 10 gur of barley. Ama-… received 2 minas 15 shekels of copper, though the rest of his name is broken off. Nanna-ikuš received half a mina of copper. Finally, 2 barig of barley are entered on account of the 2 barig of barley that someone measured out.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 10 gur of barley: 2. Ur[rani] 3. rec[eived]. 4. 2 min[as] 15 shekels of copper: 5. Ama-[......]. 6. ½ [mina] of copper: 7. Nanna-ikuš. 8. 2 barig of barley (gur-measure), 9. on account of the 2 barig of barley (that) he measured out.
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
1(u@c) sze gur ur2-[ra-ni] szu ba#-[ti] 2(asz@c) uruda ma#-[na] 1(u) 5(disz) gin2# ama#-[...] 1/2(disz@c) uruda# [ma-na] nanna-i3-kusz2# 2(barig@c) sze gur mu sze 2(barig@c) ag2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC) ?) — CUSAS 26, 240. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: British Museum, London, UK (P467741) — 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.