Position in chronology
MAD 4, 087
About this tablet
A small accounting memo from Umma in southern Iraq during the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE). It records three young goats belonging to a man named Ur-Šara that died while in the care of named herdsmen, and formally writes them off the books. Tablets like this show how carefully ancient administrators tracked every animal — even deaths in the flock had to be documented and charged to someone.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Loss report: two young goats under Hurhura and one under Alaya died while in Ur-Suen's charge and have been removed from the account. The animals belonged to Ur-Šara. Dated to the 23rd year, 8th month. In modern terms, this is a write-off slip — three head of livestock struck from the inventory because they died, with the responsible parties and the owner named for the record.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 2 kids (young goats) — Hurhura; 2. 1 kid — Alaya; 3. (animals) that died (in the charge of) Ur-Suen, 4. (they) were expended (booked out). 5. They are the kids of Ur-Šara. 6. 23(rd) year, 8(th) month.
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 hur-hur-ra2 1(asz@c) masz2 a-la2-a ur-suen ba-usz2-a ba-zi masz2 ur-szara2-ka-kam 2(u) 3(disz@t) mu 8(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 087. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215249) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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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.