Position in chronology
MAD 4, 100
About this tablet
A small receipt from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, written in the Sargonic (Old Akkadian) period, around the 23rd–22nd century BCE. A shepherd named Utu-mu delivered five animal skins, two goat skins, one ewe skin and two more goat skins, and the scribe noted which herdsman or account each skin belonged to. Hides of dead or slaughtered animals had to be handed in to the central administration as proof of what had happened to the flock. This tablet is an example of that everyday accountability.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Receipt for animal skins. Two goat skins are from Ur-Šara's account, one ewe skin is from Lugal-KA's, and two goat skins are from Ur-Suen's. The shepherd Utu-mu delivered all of them. Dated year 4, month 12.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 2 goat skins: 2. (they are) of Ur-Šara. 3. 1 ewe skin: 4. (it is) of Lugal-KA. 5. 2 goat skins: 6. (they are) of Ur-Suen. 7. Utu-mu, the shepherd, brought (them) in. 8. Year 4, month 12.
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
2(asz@c) kusz ud5 ur-szara2-ka-kam 1(asz@c) kusz u8 lugal-KA-kam 2(asz@c) kusz ud5 ur-suen-ka-kam utu-mu sipa-de3 mu-kux(DU) 4(disz@t) mu 1(u) 2(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 100. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215262) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (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.