Position in chronology
MAD 4, 052
About this tablet
An accounting memorandum from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, written in the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly 2300–2150 BCE. A herd inspection has found a shortfall of ten animals — five young goats, three mother ewes, and two rams — charged against a man named Ur-Šara, and the record notes that the missing animals are being held with the shepherd Utu-mu, over a span of four years and eight months. It is a small window into how ancient administrators tracked livestock debts across years and held individual herdsmen accountable.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Outstanding balance: five young goats, three mother ewes, and two rams. This shortfall is charged to the account of Ur-Šara. The animals in deficit are currently being kept with the shepherd Utu-mu. The period covered by this account: four years and eight months.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. Deficit: 5 kids (young goats), 2. 3 mother ewes, 3. 2 rams — 4. it is (the deficit) of Ur-Šara. 5. The deficit 6. with Utu-mu, 7. the shepherd, 8. is kept (alive, i.e. the animals dwell with him). 9. 4 years, 8 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
la2-ia3 5(asz@c) masz2 3(asz@c) u8 ama 2(asz@c) udu-nita ur-szara2-ka-kam la2-ia3 utu-mu sipa-da i3-da-szex(SIG7) 4(disz@t) mu 8(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 052. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215214) — 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.