Position in chronology
MAD 4, 148
About this tablet
This is a small livestock census from Umma in southern Iraq, written in Sumerian during the Akkadian (Sargonic) period, about 2300–2200 BCE. It records a mixed flock of sheep and goats in the care of a shepherd named Kituš-lu, counted by an official called Lugal-KA. Such counts let a large institution, here apparently connected with a 'palace of the potter(s)' and a 'New Field', check that its herds were intact and breeding. The tablet shows how carefully Sargonic administrators tracked animals held by individual herders.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Livestock count: 12 breeding ewes, 6 rams, 14 breeding nanny-goats and 6 young female goats from the regular stock. These animals are in the care of the shepherd Kituš-lu. Lugal-KA carried out the count. The flock belongs to Kabru of the potters' palace, at the New Field. Dated year 11, month 1.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse / Reverse (continuous text; no side markers in source) 1. 12 mother ewes, 2. 6 rams, 3. 14 mother nanny-goats, 4. 6 female kids, regular (stock) — 5. with Kituš-lu, the shepherd, 6. they are (kept); 7. Lugal-KA 8. counted (them). 9. Kabru of the palace of the potter(s), 10. the New Field. 11. Year 11, month 1.
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
1(u) 2(disz) u8 ama 6(disz) udu-nita 1(u) 4(disz) ud5 ama 6(disz) as2-gar3 sza3-du10 ki-tusz-lu2 sipa-da i3-da-szex(SIG7) lugal-KA-e i3-szid kab2-ru e2-gal bahar3-ka a-sza3 gibil 1(u) 1(disz@t) mu 1(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 148. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215308) — 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.