Position in chronology
MAD 4, 079
About this tablet
A small herding account from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, written in the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE). It tallies goats, sheep, and goat hides debited from the herds under named shepherds and individuals — including one kid noted as unbranded — and closes the books over a remarkably long span of seven years and eight months. Records like this show how tightly the state tracked even a handful of animals and held individual herdsmen accountable for losses.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is an expenditure ledger for livestock. Two young goats and a mother nanny-goat are charged to the shepherd Ur-Utu. A mother ewe and a ram — belonging to Ur-Šara — were driven off by Dumuzi-andul. Two more kids are charged to Lulu, and one kid, which carried no brand mark, to Abu-ḫadu. The shepherd Utu-mu delivered two hides from mother goats. The bottom line: these are the booked withdrawals from the herd, covering a period of seven years and eight months.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 2 kids (young goats), 2. 1 mother nanny-goat: 3. Ur-Utu, the shepherd. 4. 1 mother ewe, 5. 1 ram: 6. Dumuzi-andul carried (them) off; 7. it is (the property) of Ur-Šara. 8. 2 kids: 9. Lulu. 10. 1 kid, not branded (on the flank): 11. Abu-ḫadu. 12. 2 hides of mother nanny-goats: 13. Utu-mu, the shepherd — delivery. 14. It is (the account of) expenditures. 15. 7 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
2(asz@c) masz2 1(asz@c) ud5 ama ur-utu sipa 1(asz@c) u8 ama 1(asz@c) udu-nita dumu-zi-an-dul3 ba-lah5 ur-szara2-ka-kam 2(asz@c) masz2 lu-lu 1(asz@c) masz2 za3 nu-szu2 a-bu-ha-du 2(asz@c) kusz ud5 ama utu-mu sipa mu-kux(DU) zi-zi-ga-am3 7(disz@t) mu 8(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 079. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215241) — 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.