Position in chronology
MAD 4, 021
About this tablet
A barley disbursement account from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, written in the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE), when the dynasty of Sargon of Akkad ruled Mesopotamia. A storehouse official pays out large quantities of barley — some 175 gur, tens of thousands of liters — to nine named individuals, several identified by profession: a cupbearer, a scribe, a lamentation-priest, a priestess, and a fuller. It is the routine bookkeeping of a city administration, closing with a running total, the booking-out formula, and a date.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is an expenditure ledger for barley, measured by the standard 'sag-gal' gur. Ur-Endimgig got 47 gur (written as 60 minus 13); Ur-saga the cupbearer, 15; Ur-nagar the lamentation-priest, 10; Mezu the scribe, 46 gur and 2 barig; Ur-gu of Ur-dudu, 6; Uda, 16; Ama-e'e, 10 — duly received; Id-hinun the nugig-priestess, 5; and Ur-Šubur the fuller, 20. Altogether 175 gur and 2 barig of barley booked out of the stores, apparently under the responsibility of Ur-zu the builder, in the fifth year, fourth month.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 60 less 13(?) gur of barley, (in) the sag-gal (measure): 2. Ur-Endimgig(?); 3. 15 (gur): Ur-saga, the cupbearer; 4. 10 (gur): Ur-nagar, the lamentation-priest; 5. 46 gur 2 barig: Mezu, the scribe; 6. 6 (gur): Ur-gu (of?) Ur-dudu; 7. 16 (gur): Uda; 8. 10 (gur): Ama-e'e — 9. received (šu ba-ti); 10. 5 (gur): Id-hinun, the nugig-priestess; 11. 20 (gur): Ur-Šubur, the fuller. 12. Total: 175(?) gur 2 barig of barley, (in) the sag-gal (measure), 13. barley expended (zi-ga). 14. Ur-zu(?), the builder(?). 15. Year 5(?), month 4.
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(gesz2) la2? 1(u) 3(disz)? sze [gur] sag-gal2 ur-en-dim2-gig#? 1(u) 5(asz) ur-sa6-ga# sagi 1(u) ur-nagar gala 4(u) 6(asz) 2(barig) me-zu dub-sar 6(asz) ur-gu ur-du-du 1(u) 6(asz) u2-da 1(u) ama-e2-e szu ba-ti 5(asz) i7-hi-nun nu-gig 2(u) ur-szubur azlag4 szunigin 2(gesz2) 5(u) 5(asz)? 2(barig) sze gur sag-gal2 sze zi-ga ur-zu? szitim? 5(disz@t)? mu 4(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 021. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215183) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
Related tablets
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.