Position in chronology
MAD 4, 003
About this tablet
A small barley account from Ešnunna (modern Tell Asmar) in the Old Akkadian period, roughly the 23rd century BCE. A scribe lists amounts of grain against three individuals and the palace itself, labels the whole as šibšum — a levy or share due on the crop — and places it under the responsibility of a man named Azaqar. It is a glimpse of the tax machinery of a city whose god, Tišpak, even appears in one taxpayer's name.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a grain tax ledger. Abī-Tišpak owes (or delivered) 4 gur and 2 barig of barley — roughly 1,300 liters. The palace accounts for 16 gur, by far the largest entry. Idada and Pū-ilum are each listed at 3 gur 3 barig. The scribe notes that all of this is the šibšum, the levy taken from the harvest, and that the whole amount is handled by — or charged to — an official named Azaqar.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 4 gur 2 barig of barley — 2. Abī-Tišpak; 3. 16 (gur) — the palace; 4. 3 (gur) 3 barig — Idada; 5. 3 (gur) 3 barig — Pū-ilum. 6. (It is) šibšum-levy, 7. in the hand of (/ credited to) Azaqar.
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
4(asz@c) 2(barig@c) _sze gur_ a-bi2-tiszpak 1(u@c) 6(asz@c) e2-gal 3(asz@c) 3(barig@c) i-da-da 3(asz@c) 3(barig@c) pu3-dingir si-ib-szum szu a-za-qar
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 003. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215165) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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Related sources
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.