Position in chronology
MAD 4, 159
About this tablet
A short livestock account from Umma in southern Iraq, written in the Sargonic (Old Akkadian) period, around 2300–2200 BCE, when the region was ruled by the kings of Akkad. It tracks a few animals and hides through a shepherd named Lugal-kur: one hide was taken away by a man whose name is partly lost, a goat hide was brought in, and a living goat is listed under a man called Abira, all within the responsibility of Ur-Suen. It is a small piece of the routine paperwork that held herders accountable for every animal in their care, down to the skins of those that died.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One hide (its description is broken) was taken away by a man whose name begins with Ur-, though the rest of it is lost. One goat hide, marked, connected with Ur-Šara, was brought in by Lugal-kur the shepherd. One goat, not marked, is listed under Abira. All of this falls under Ur-Suen, with Lugal-kur as the shepherd responsible. The tablet ends with the number 8 followed by a break, probably the beginning of a date formula.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse(?) (no side markers in the source; line numbers supplied editorially) 1. 1 [hide ...], 2. Ur-[...]; 3. Ur-x-[...] 4. took (it) away. 5. 1 goat hide, marked(?) — Ur-Šara; 6. Lugal-kur, the shepherd, brought (it) in. 7. 1 goat, not marked(?) — 8. Abira. 9. (This is) of Ur-Suen. 10. Lugal-kur, the shepherd. 11. 8 [...]
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
1(asz@c) [kusz ...] ur-[...] ur-x-[...]-ke4 ba-de6 1(asz@c) kusz masz2 za3-szu4 ur-szara2 lugal-kur sipa-e mu-kux(DU) 1(asz@c) masz2 za3 nu-szu4 a-bi2-ra ur-suen-ka-kam lugal-kur sipa 8(disz) [mu ...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 159. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215319) — 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.