Position in chronology
Fs Sommerfeld & Krebernik 514-545 06
About this tablet
An accounting tablet from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, probably from Umma in southern Iraq, tallying flocks of sheep. Named herdsmen — Ur-Enki, Azuzu, Ur-abzu — are each credited with specific numbers of ewes, breeding rams, and male and female lambs still carrying their fleece. The grand total runs to more than 1,500 ewes that were plucked of their wool and inspected. It is a snapshot of large-scale institutional animal husbandry: the state counting its wool-bearing livestock, shepherd by shepherd, over 4,000 years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a flock inventory. One shepherd's account lists 5 male lambs and 6 female lambs still in fleece, plus roughly 17 ewes and 23 or more breeding rams under Ur-Enki. Another entry credits 52 ewes, 24 rams, and 4 fleece-bearing lambs on hand, and 34 ewes to Azuzu, with Ur-abzu responsible for a further 82-plus ewes and 40 or more rams. The bottom line: over 1,565 ewes and an unknown number of male lambs, all of them plucked of their wool and checked off during inspection. A closing note certifies the record as a properly drawn-up tablet, though the opening line and several figures are broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [...] ... 2. 5 male lambs, 6 female lambs, with fleece, 3. male(s); 4. [n+]20 minus 3 (= 17) ewes, [n+]23 breeding rams: 5. [Ur]-En[ki]. 6. 52 ewes, 24 breeding rams, 7. 2 male lambs, 2 female lambs with fleece, at the fore (igi-še), 8. 34 ewes: Azuzu; 9. Ur-abzu. 10. 82 [+n] ewes, 40 [+n breeding rams], 11. 3? [...] 12. Total: [...] 1,565 [+n] ewes, [n] male lambs [...], plucked (of their wool) [and?] inspected. 13. [Tablet set in or]der [...].
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
[...] x 5(asz@c) sila4 nita2 6(asz@c@90) kir11 bar-gal2 nita [n?] 2(u@c) la2 3(disz@t) u8# [n] 2(u@c) 3(asz@c) utua# [ur]-en-[ki] 5(u@c) 2(asz@c) u8 2(u@c) 4(asz@c) utua 2(asz@c) sila4-nita2 2(asz@c@90) kir11 bar-gal2 igi-sze3 3(u@c) 4(asz@c) u8 a-zu-zu ur-abzu# 1(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) 2(asz@c) [n] u8 4(u@c) [n utua] 3(asz@c)#? [...] [szu]-nigin2 [...] 2(gesz'u) 6(gesz2) [n] 5(disz@t) u8 [n sila4]-nita2 [...] ur4 [x?] igi#-du8 [dub si-sa2]-a# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Fs Sommerfeld & Krebernik 514-545 06. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (P433197) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-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.