Position in chronology
LB 0024
About this tablet
A small personnel roster from the Old Akkadian period (ca. 2350–2200 BCE), from an unknown site in Mesopotamia. A scribe counted off six men by name — each marked with the numeral 'one' — and noted that they live with, or are attached to the household of, a man called Lugal-baragesi and a woman called Geme-Nanše. Records like this tracked dependent labor: who belonged to which household and could be called on for work or rations. It is a glimpse of ordinary household bookkeeping more than four thousand years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a headcount of six named men: Ur-Nin-..., Lugal-zame, Lugal-itida, Me-me, Lugal-a/da, and Ne-sag — one tally mark beside each name. The closing line states where they belong: they are living with Lugal-baragesi and Geme-Nanše, that is, they are members of (or dependents attached to) that couple's or that household's establishment. The first couple of tally marks and parts of some names are chipped away, but the structure of the list is clear.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [1 (man):] Ur-Nin-..., 2. [1 (man):] Lugal-zame, 3. 1 (man): Lugal-itida, 4. 1 (man): Me-me, 5. 1 (man): Lugal-a/da(?), 6. [1 (man)?:] Ne-sag — 7. with Lugal-baragesi(?) 8. (and) Geme-Nanše 9. they are living (i.e., they dwell in their household).
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(disz)] ur#-nin-x [1(disz)] lugal-za-me 1(disz) lugal-iti-da 1(disz) me-me 1(disz) lugal-a2/da#? [1(disz)?] ne-sag lugal#-bara2-ge-si? geme2#-nansze-da i3-da-se12
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — LB 0024. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: de Liagre Böhl Collection, Netherlands Institute for the Near East, Leiden, Holland (P388599) — 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.