Position in chronology
MAD 1, 276
About this tablet
A small personnel roster from Ešnunna in the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE) — the age of the dynasty of Sargon of Akkad. A scribe counts off dependent workers one by one: a servant, two men assigned to the care of a person named Ama-Inanna, a woman named Meme identified by her occupation, and one more individual. Lists like this were the basic tool by which great households and institutions kept track of their human labor force, and the names mix Akkadian and Sumerian, reflecting the bilingual society of the time.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a head-count of personnel. First, a servant(?), Sumu-tar. Then two men, Ibbi-bi and Erē'um, who are listed as being under the responsibility of (or credited to) Ama-Inanna. Next comes one woman, Meme, identified as a kar-ke — a woman of the quay, probably a prostitute or an unattached female worker. Finally, one more person, Šu-gubu, whose name is partly broken but can be restored. In modern terms: a short staff register noting who belongs to whom in a private or institutional household.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. Servant(?): Sumu-tar; 2. 1 (man): Ibbi-bi; 3. 1 (man): Erē'um — 4. (these are) in the charge of Ama-Inanna; 5. 1 (woman): Meme, 6. the kar-ke woman (harlot/quay-worker); 7. 1 (person): Šu-gu[bu].
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
_ARAD2#?_ su-mu-tar# 1(asz@c) i-bi2-bi2 1(asz@c) er3-e-um szu ama-inanna 1(asz@c) me-me geme2-kar-ke3 1(asz@c) szu-gu#-[bu3]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 1, 276. 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 (P215105) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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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.