Position in chronology
MAH 16200
About this tablet
An administrative account from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly 2300–2200 BCE, recording quantities of duck eggs assigned to or collected from named individuals. The list opens with Mea, an official whose title (enku) marks him as an inspector or tax collector over fisheries and waterfowl, and runs through several men including a palace cupbearer. It is a small but vivid window into how the ancient state tracked even humble commodities — hundreds of eggs, counted one batch at a time — through named, accountable persons.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is an egg ledger filed under Mea, the fisheries officer. It itemizes batches of duck eggs against named individuals: 20 eggs for Lu-NIMga, 28 for Lugalda the cupbearer, about 120 for Lu-zulumhi, 10 entered against Uguni's account, 230 for Lu-gešbare, and 10 for a man named Ur-ŠE..., whose name is partly broken away. In total the document tracks well over 400 duck eggs moving through the hands of these half-dozen people — routine stock-keeping for a state or temple poultry operation.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. Mea, the fisheries inspector (enku). 2. 20 duck eggs: 3. Lu-NIM-ga(?); 4. 30 minus 2 (= 28) duck eggs: 5. Lugalda, 6. the cupbearer; 7. 120(?) duck eggs: 8. Lu-zulumhi; 9. 10 duck eggs: 10. Uguni (or: charged to his account); 11. 240 minus 10 (= 230) duck eggs: 12. Lu-gešbar-e; 13. 10 duck eggs: 14. Ur-ŠE-[...]...
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
me-a enku 2(u@c) nunuz uz lu2-NIM-ga2? 3(u@c) la2 2(asz@c) nunuz uz lugal-da sagi 2(gesz2@c)? nunuz uz lu2#-zulumhi(|SIG2.BU|) 1(u@c) nunuz uz ugu2-ni 4(gesz2@c) la2 1(u@c) nunuz uz lu2-gesz-bar-e3 1(u@c) nunuz uz ur-SZE3-[x (x)]-x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAH 16200. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland (P424095) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-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.