Position in chronology
MAD 4, 059
About this tablet
An Old Akkadian bookkeeping record from Umma in southern Iraq, roughly 2300 BCE. When the authorities audited a shepherd's flock, animals that should have been there but weren't were booked as a 'deficit' that someone owed back to the administration. Here eighteen sheep and goats are missing from a flock over a span of two years and eight months, charged to the account of Ur-Šara, with Abi-nar named as the shepherd in charge. Such audit tablets show how tightly the early Mesopotamian state tracked its livestock — and its personnel.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Shortfall report: the flock is down by 3 mother ewes, 2 rams, 2 good-grade ewe lambs, and 12 young goats — 18 head missing in all. The shortfall is charged to Ur-Šara's account. Abi-nar is the shepherd responsible. The deficit covers a period of two years and eight months.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obv.) 1. Deficit: 3 mother ewes, 2. 2 rams, 3. 2 female lambs of regular (šà-du₁₀) quality, 4. 12 (male) kids. 5. Total: 20 less 2 (= 18) sheep (and goats), the deficit; 6. it is (the deficit) of Ur-Šara. 7. Abi-nar (is) the shepherd. 8. (Period:) 2 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> 3(disz) u8 ama 2(disz) udu-nita 2(disz) kir11 sza3-du10 1(u) 2(disz) masz2 szunigin 2(u) la2 2(disz) udu la2-ia3 ur-szara2-ka-kam a-bi2-nar sipa 2(disz@t) mu 8(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 059. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215221) — 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.