Position in chronology
MAD 4, 033
About this tablet
An administrative memorandum from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly 2300–2200 BCE, now in the Louvre. It records the movement of a handful of sheep and goats: some taken from a pen, one used at a city festival (the elunum), others handed over by named individuals — including two women — to specific recipients, in at least one case as a votive gift 'for his life', that is, an offering for someone's health or well-being. Such small dossiers show how ordinary people mixed economic bookkeeping with personal piety: a single tablet tracks both who drove off whose sheep and who gave an animal to a god for a loved one's life.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Three rams that A-ura had received were driven out of the sheep pen — this matter, concerning his life, is on record. One young goat was used in the city during the elunum festival, when he went to visit his personal god. One ram: En-ane gave it to the slave woman assigned to the journey. One ewe: Geme-ea gave it to Dada. And one more ram: Geme-ea gave it as an offering for the sake of (someone's) life. In short, a running account of five or six animals — where they went, who handed them over, and why.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 3 rams, 2. which A-ura had received — 3. he drove (them) off from the sheep pen; 4. (this concerns) his life — it is known. 5. 1 kid: 6. in the city it was (the occasion of) the elunum-festival; 7. he went to his (personal) god. 8. 1 ram: En-ane 9. gave to the slave woman ... (assigned to?) the journey. 10. 1 ewe: Geme-ea 11. to Dada 12. gave. 13. 1 ram: Geme-ea, 14. for the sake of his/her life, 15. gave to him.
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
3(asz@c) udu-nita a-ur3-ra in-tug2-a ga2 udu-ta mu-lah4 nam-ti-la-ni e-zu 1(asz@c) masz2 iri-a e-lu5-ka-am3 dingir-ra-na-sze3 e-gen 1(asz@c) udu-nita en-an-ne2 geme2 x dub kaskal-ra e-na-szum2 1(asz@c) u8 geme2-e3-a da-da-ra e-na-szum2 1(asz@c) udu-nita geme2-e3-a nam-ti-la-na-ra e-na-szum2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 033. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215195) — 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.