Position in chronology
MAD 1, 272
About this tablet
An Old Akkadian administrative account from Ešnunna (modern Tell Asmar in Iraq), written during the age of the Akkadian empire, roughly 2300–2150 BCE. It tallies batches of large wooden beams and other items — some connected with the distant city of Mari on the Euphrates, some earmarked for chariot work, some sitting in a depot — and names the officials answerable for each lot. It is a glimpse of the timber logistics behind Mesopotamian building and vehicle-making, a commodity so scarce in southern Mesopotamia that it had to be tracked beam by beam.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
An inventory of lumber and equipment: five large beams belonging to the Mari consignment; thirty-one large šedu-timbers set aside for transport, handled by Udatum; thirty large beams charged to Ilum-bala, the chariot man; and fifty further items held at the storage depot. Two men, Šu-gubu and Iḫzuzum, are listed at the end, evidently the officials responsible for the lot. In short: a warehouse checklist recording who holds which batch of precious timber and what it is destined for.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 5 large beams (ur₃ gal), 2. those of Mari; 3. 31 large šedu-timbers, 4. those of the carrying-off (tabāl), 5. (via) Udatum; 6. 30 large beams: 7. Ilum-bala, 8. the one of the chariot(s); 9. 50 ...-objects (KA×KID₂), 10. those of the storage-place (maškani): 11. Šu-gubu 12. (and) Iḫzuzum.
Our translation engine — Fable 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
5(asz@c) _ur3 gal_ szu-ut ma-ri2 3(u@c) 1(asz@c) _sze-du10 gal_ szu-ut ta2-ba-al u2-da-tum 3(u@c) _ur3 gal_ dingir-bala szu _gigir2_ 5(u@c) |KAxKID2| szu-ut masz-ga-ni szu-gu-bu3 ih-zu-zum
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 1, 272. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P215102) — 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.