Position in chronology
MAD 4, 030
About this tablet
An accounting tablet from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, written under the Akkadian empire (around 2300–2200 BCE). It is a herd inventory: an official counts up a flock of goats and sheep — mother animals, kids, and lambs — entrusted to a man named Abi-narda, under the shepherd Ur-sipa. Records like this were the state's way of tracking living capital: animals were loaned out to herders, and the flock had to be accounted for, head by head, at inspection time.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Flock inventory: 60 adult nanny goats, 29 female kids and 5 male kids of standard grade, 19 adult ewes, 3 female lambs of standard grade, and 4 male lambs — a grand total of 119 sheep and goats. This account has been checked and balanced. The animals are being kept with Abi-narda; Ur-sipa is the shepherd responsible. Dated to the second year, eighth month.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 60 mother goats, 2 30 minus 1 (= 29) female kids, (of) regular (quality/delivery), 3 5 male kids, (of) regular (quality/delivery), 4 20 minus 1 (= 19) mother ewes, 5 3 female lambs, (of) regular (quality/delivery), 6 4 male lambs. 7 Total: 120 <minus 1> goats (and) sheep. 8 It is a tablet (that has been) set in order. 9 With Abi-narda 10 they are living (i.e., the animals are kept with him). 11 Ur-sipa (is) the shepherd. 12 [Year 2, month 8].
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
1(gesz2) ud5 ama 3(u) la2 1(asz@c) as2-gar3 sza3-du10 5(asz@c) masz2-nita sza3-du10 2(u) la2 1(asz@c) u8 ama 3(asz@c) kir11 sza3-du10 4(asz@c) sila4-nita szunigin 2(gesz2) <la2 1(disz)> ud5 udu im si-sa2-am3 a-bi2-nar-da i3-da-szex(SIG7) ur-sipa sipa [2(disz@t) mu 8(disz@t)] iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 030. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215192) — 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.