Position in chronology
MAD 4, 024
About this tablet
A small herding account from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, written in the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly 2300 BCE. An administrator is tallying a handful of animals and animal hides, noting for each one whether it carries an identifying mark on its flank — the ancient equivalent of checking which stock is branded — and naming the shepherds and officials responsible. It is a glimpse of how closely even single lambs and goat skins were tracked in Mesopotamian bureaucracy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
An inventory of hides and small livestock, item by item: two goat hides and one kid hide, all carrying their flank marks; one kid and one male lamb without marks — all of these credited to Ur-Šara. One marked ram belongs to Lugal-KA. One unmarked female kid comes from the shepherd Si-du. One marked goat hide belongs to Ur-Suen. One further kid is entered under Ur-Šara, the god's scribe, with Utu-mu the shepherd; Na-ešdua is named at the close, perhaps as the one who handled the delivery. The account spans — or is dated to — five years and four months.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 2 goat hides, with (their) flank-mark (zag-šu), 2. 1 kid hide, with (its) flank-mark, 3. 1 kid, without flank-mark, 4. 1 male lamb, without flank-mark — 5. (these are) of Ur-Šara. 6. 1 ram, with (its) flank-mark — 7. (this is) of Lugal-KA. 8. 1 si-ašgar (female kid?), without flank-mark — 9. (from) Si-du, the shepherd. 10. 1 goat hide, with (its) flank-mark — 11. (this is) of Ur-Suen. 12. 1 kid: Ur-Šara, the scribe of the god; 13. Utu-mu, the shepherd. 14. Na-ešdua (delivered it?). 15. 5 years, 4 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
2(asz@c) kusz ud5 za3-szu2 1(asz@c) kusz masz2 za3-szu2 1(asz@c) masz2 za3 nu-szu2 1(asz@c) sila4-nita za3 nu-szu2 ur-szara2-ka-kam 1(asz@c) udu-nita za3-szu2 lugal-KA-kam 1(asz@c) si-as2-gar3 za3 nu-szu2 si-du3 sipa 1(asz@c) kusz ud5 za3-szu2 ur-suen-kam 1(asz@c) masz2 ur-szara2 dub-sar dingir-ra utu-mu sipa na-esz5-du3-a 5(disz@t) mu 4(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 024. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215186) — 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.