Position in chronology
MAD 4, 133
About this tablet
A short livestock record from Umma in southern Iraq, written in Sumerian during the Akkadian (Sargonic) empire, around 2300 BCE. It lists ten animals belonging to two owners, Ur-Šara and Lugal-KA, which a shepherd named Utu-mugi led away from the time of the wool-plucking. The closing note of '4 years and 8 months' probably measures how long ago this happened or how long the matter has run. It looks like a memorandum for a dispute or an audit, where an owner wanted a written account of animals in a herdsman's keeping.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Five he-goats and two rams belonging to Ur-Šara, and three breeding ewes belonging to Lugal-KA, were led away by Utu-mugi the shepherd, starting at the time the sheep were plucked for their wool. The note ends with a span of four years and eight months.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 5 he-goats, 2. 2 rams: 3. (these are) of Ur-Šara. 4. 3 mother ewes: 5. (these are) of Lugal-KA. 6. From (the time of) the plucking, 7. Utu-mugi, 8. the shepherd, 9. led (them) away. 10. 4 years (and) 8 months.
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
5(asz@c) masz2 2(asz@c) udu-nita ur-szara2-ka-kam 3(asz@c) u8 ama lugal-KA-kam bar zu2-si-ka-ta utu-mu-gi4 sipa-de3 ba-lah5 4(disz@t) mu 8(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 133. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215293) — 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.