Position in chronology
MAD 1, 296
About this tablet
A personnel roster from Ešnunna (modern Tell Asmar, Iraq) in the Old Akkadian period, around 2300–2200 BCE. A scribe simply ticked off ten men by name, one apiece, probably workers or ration recipients attached to an institution. Lists like this are the raw material of ancient labor administration: no story, just the people themselves — including a man charmingly named 'Clod' (Kirbānum) and another called 'Favorite of the Gods.'
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a headcount: ten men, each counted once — Uzazum, Zabukanum, Kinum-bala, Pirhashum, U-KA-KA, Shu-Mama, Zunanum, Kirbanum, Ilum-kimat, and Megir-ili ('Favorite of the Gods'). The final entry is damaged; only the end of one more name, '...-zu,' survives. In today's terms it is a sign-in sheet or payroll roster from an office in Eshnunna — names checked off, one per line, for work, rations, or some duty the tablet itself does not spell out.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 Uzāzum 1 Zabukānum 1 Kīnum-bala 1 Pirḫašum 1 U-KA-KA 1 Šu-Mama 1 Zunānum 1 Kirbānum 1 Ilum-kīmat 1 Megir-ilī-ilī ("Favorite-of-the-gods") [...]-zu [broken name]
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
1(asz@c) u2-za-zum 1(asz@c) za-bu-ka3-num2 1(asz@c) ki2-num2-bala 1(asz@c) pir6-ha-szum 1(asz@c) u2-KA-KA 1(asz@c) szu-ma-ma 1(asz@c) zu-na-num2 1(asz@c) kir-ba-num2 1(asz@c) dingir-ki2-ma-at 1(asz@c) me-gir-dingir-dingir [...]-zu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 1, 296. 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 (P215124) — 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.