Position in chronology
CUSAS 35, 485
About this tablet
An administrative account from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly 2300–2150 BCE, tallying provisions — flour measured in the standard 'gur of Agade', beer-bread and malt for brewing, groats, oil, fish, and work baskets. The final lines identify the record as the outstanding deficit connected with a man named Annanum and goods brought to Gasur, the town in northern Mesopotamia later known as Nuzi. It is a small window into imperial bookkeeping: the Akkadian state tracking exactly what was delivered and what was still owed.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a delivery-and-shortfall account. On the books: 6 gur of flour by the Agade standard measure, at least 1 gur 4 ban of beer-bread, 1 gur 4 ban of malt, 3 gur 4 ban of groats, one large jar of oil, 70 sila of processed oil, 1 gur 1 barig of fish on hand, a broken entry, and at least 6 earth-baskets. The bottom line: these amounts are the outstanding deficit — the balance still owed — on the goods that Annanum brought to Gasur. One line in the middle is too damaged to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 6 gur of flour, in the Agade (measure); 2. [n +] 1 gur 4 ban of beer-bread; 3. 1 gur 4 ban of malt; 4. 3 gur 4 ban of groats; 5. 1 large jar of oil; 6. 70 sila of processed oil; 7. 1 gur 1 barig of fish, on hand; 8. [n ...]-NI-... (broken); 9. [n +] 6 earth-baskets (corvée baskets); 10. deficit: 11. (that) of [...] Annanum, 12. which to/at Gasur 13. he brought — (this is what it is).
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
6(asz@c) zi3 gur a-ga#-de3# [n] 1(asz@c) 4(ban2@c) bappir# [gur] 1(asz@c) 4(ban2@c) munu4# [gur] 3(asz@c) 4(ban2@c) nig2#-ar3#-ra# gur 1(asz@c) i3 dug# gal 1(gesz2@c) 1(u@c) i3 sila3 i3-ak 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) ku6 gur sag-gal2# [n x]-NI-x [n] 6(asz@c) dupsik la2-ia3 [x] an-na-num2#-e ga-sur2-a# mu-de6-a-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — CUSAS 35, 485. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P250697) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-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.