Position in chronology
MAD 4, 038
About this tablet
A herding account from Umma in southern Iraq, written under the Akkadian empire (around 2300 BCE). Two owners, Ur-Šara and Ur-Suen, have placed their cattle — grown cows, yearling stock, and suckling calves — in the care of a professional cowherd named Ur-Nin-ildu. The final line fixes the term of custody at one year and four months. It is a small window into ancient animal husbandry as a contracted service: herds were inventoried by age class precisely so the owner could check them back in later.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a livestock ledger. Ur-Šara's herd: an unknown number of full-grown cows (the figure is broken off), some three-year-old and two-year-old cows, two two-year-old bull calves, and three calves still nursing at their mothers' side. Ur-Suen's herd: three full-grown cows, one two-year-old cow, and three nursing calves. All of these animals are being boarded with the cowherd Ur-Nin-ildu, and the arrangement runs for one year and four months. The opening quantities are lost where the tablet is damaged.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 1. [...] full-grown cow(s), 2. [...] three-(year-old) cow(s), 3. [...] two-(year-old) cow(s), 4. 2 two-(year-old) bull calves, 5. 3 calves at (their mothers') side — 6. (these) are Ur-Šara's. 7. 3 full-grown cows, 8. 1 two-(year-old) cow, 9. 3 calves at (their mothers') side — 10. (these) are Ur-Suen's. 11. With Ur-Nin-ildu, the cowherd, 12. they are living (i.e., are kept at pasture). 13. 1 year, 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
[...] ab2-mah2 [...] ab2 3(disz@t) [...] ab2 2(disz@t) 2(asz@c) amar gu4 2(disz@t) 3(asz@c) amar da-ba ur-szara2-kam 3(asz@c) ab2-mah2 1(asz@c) ab2 2(disz@t) 3(asz@c) amar da-ba ur-suen-kam ur-nin-ildu3 unu3-da i3-da-szex(SIG7) 1(disz@t) mu 4(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 038. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215200) — 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.