Position in chronology
CUSAS 26, 275
About this tablet
This is a short record from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, around 2300–2150 BCE. It lists copper and copper knives given out to a few named men, and it closes with the phrase "received". It looks like part of a workshop or storehouse system that kept track of metal tools handed to individual people. The tablet's origin is unknown and it is quite damaged, so the exact type of knife and the total amount of copper can't be recovered.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a receipt for copper and copper knives. It opens with a number of knives, apparently including a special "šum" knife, maybe a slaughtering knife. Next comes a quantity of copper for knives, written as "so many minus two", and it's linked to a man named Lugal-šu. Two items go to a man whose name begins with Amar-, and the lines after that are damaged. In the next readable entries, Lugal-šu gets 13 and Lugal-iri gets 4. After another gap, the last entry lists more copper, again tied to the word "šum", and the whole list is marked as received.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(1) [n ...] knife/knives, ..., šum-knife (2) [n] less 2 NI of copper, knife/knives (3) Lugal-šu (4) 2 (for) Amar-x (5) [...] (6) [...] ... [...] (7) 13 (for) Lugal-šu (8) 4 (for) Lugal-iri (9) [...] (10) n n [...] copper, šum (11) [re]ceived.
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
[n ...] gir2# x szum gir2 [n] la2 2(disz@t) NI uruda gir2# lugal-szu 2(disz@t) amar-x [...] [x] x [...] 1(u) 3(disz@t) lugal-szu 4(disz@t) lugal-iri# [...] n n [x] uruda szum [szu] ti-a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — CUSAS 26, 275. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: private: anonymous, unlocated (P427619) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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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.