Position in chronology
MAD 1, 297
About this tablet
A seed-grain ledger from Ešnunna (modern Tell Asmar in eastern Iraq), written during the Akkadian period, around 2300 BCE. An administrator records barley issued as seed to seven named individuals — presumably farmers or overseers preparing fields for sowing — and closes with a grand total. Documents like this show how a centralized estate controlled the agricultural cycle, advancing seed in measured amounts and keeping each recipient accountable by name.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a sowing-season distribution list. Abi-bi received 8 gur of seed barley (roughly 2,400 liters), Ilī-dān got about 3.5 gur, and Ilšu-dan, Ilu-dānu, and Itutu each took 2 gur. Two larger allocations went to Iškiki and Galzu, 10 gur apiece. The clerk added it all up — 37 gur, 2 barig, and 3 ban of seed barley in total, which checks out exactly against the individual entries — and marked the barley account closed.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 8 gur of barley, seed grain — 2. Abi-bi; 3. 3 gur 2 barig 3 ban — Ilī-dān; 4. 2 gur — Ilšu-dan; 5. 2 gur — Ilu-dānu; 6. 2 gur — Itutu; 7. 10 gur of barley — Iškiki; 8. 10 gur of barley — Galzu. 9. [Total: 3]7 gur 2 barig 3 ban of barley, seed grain. 10. Barley (account) concluded.
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
8(asz@c) sze gur numun a-bi2-bi2 3(asz@c) 2(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) i3-li2-dan 2(asz@c) dingir-su-kal 2(asz@c) i3-lu-da-nu 2(asz@c) i-tu-tu 1(u@c) sze gur isz-ki-ki 1(u@c) sze gur gal-zu [szunigin 3(u@c)] 7(asz@c) 2(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) sze gur numun sze# musz3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 1, 297. 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 (P215125) — 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.