Position in chronology
DCS 083
About this tablet
A personnel roster from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly 2300–2150 BCE: a head-count of labor gangs, each under a named overseer (nu-banda), drawn up at a formal inspection of the work-troop. Alongside hundreds of ordinary workmen it lists plowmen, a standard-bearer, and men currently 'withdrawn' from the rolls. Such muster documents show how early Mesopotamian states tracked and mobilized large labor forces for agriculture and public works — the bureaucratic backbone of the world's first territorial empire.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a headcount taken at a muster of the workforce. Overseer Bazige's section lists sixty-odd workmen; another section counts the men currently on duty, plus nine plowmen, one standard-bearer, and two men of an unclear designation under an overseer whose name ends in -Mama. Overseer Ur-abba answers for ninety workmen, and overseer Lugal-mu-ḫetil for a hundred and thirty. The bottom line: 546 workmen in all, with 13 men struck off the rolls as withdrawn. Filed as an inspection report of the labor troop.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 1(aš) 2(diš) workmen (guruš), 2. overseer: Bazige; 3. 2(diš) 2(aš) 26 men on duty (stationed men) are they; 4. 10 less 1 (= 9) plowmen, 1 standard-bearer, 5. 2 men, ...-sidaum(?), 6. overseer: ...-Mama; 7. 1(aš) 30 workmen, 8. overseer: Ur-abba; 9. 2(geš₂) 10 (= 130) workmen, 10. overseer: Lugal-mu-ḫetil. 11. Total: 9(geš₂) 6 (= 546) workmen; 12. total: 13 men withdrawn (booked out). 13. Inspection of the work-troop.
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
1(asz) 2(disz) gurusz nu-banda3 ba-zi-ge# 2(disz) 2(asz) 2(u) 6(disz) lu2 gub-ba-me 1(u) la2 1(disz) engar 1(disz) lu2 szu-nir 2(disz) lu2 x-x-u-si-da-um? nu-banda3 x-ma-ma 1(asz) 3(u) gurusz nu-banda3 ur-ab-ba 2(gesz2) 1(u) gurusz nu-banda3 lugal-mu-he2-ti-il8 szunigin 9(gesz2) 6(disz) gurusz szunigin 1(u) 3(disz) lu2 zi-ga gurum2 erin2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — DCS 083. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France (P109168) — 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.