Position in chronology
MAD 4, 020
About this tablet
A herding account from Umma in southern Iraq, written in the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE). It inventories a goat herd — 82 animals in all, sorted by age and sex — that belongs to a man named Ur-Šara but is entrusted to the shepherd Utu-mu. The closing lines record the formal settling of the account, the ancient equivalent of an audit of livestock held on consignment, a cornerstone practice of Mesopotamian animal husbandry.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Inventory of goats: 47 mother nanny goats, 10 female kids and 10 male kids of standard grade, and 15 full-grown billy goats — 82 goats in total currently on hand. The herd belongs to Ur-Šara and is in the care of the shepherd Utu-mu, with whom the animals are kept. The books on this herd were balanced at Barasiga. The period covered: 11 years and 7 months.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 5(u) la2 3(aš) — 50 less 3 (= 47) mother goats, 2. 10 female kids, šà-du₁₀ (regular-quality/suckling), 3. 10 male kids, šà-du₁₀, 4. 15 full-grown billy goats; 5. total: 1(geš₂) 2(u) 2 — 82 goats on hand (lit. "standing"). 6. It is (the herd) of Ur-Šara. 7–8. They are kept (lit. "live") with Utu-mu, the shepherd. 9. In Barasiga its account was settled (lit. "its account was made"). 10. 11 years, 7 months.
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
5(u) la2 3(asz@c) ud5 ama 1(u) as2-gar3 sza3-du10 1(u) masz2 sza3-du10 1(u) 5(disz) masz2-gal-gal szunigin 1(gesz2) 2(u) 2(disz) ud5 gub-ba ur-szara2-ka-kam utu-mu sipa-da i3-da-szex(SIG7) bara2-si-ga-a nig2-ka9!(RA)-bi ba-ak 1(u) 1(disz@t) mu 7(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 020. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215182) — 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.