Position in chronology
AAS 009
About this tablet
A small administrative tablet from Umma in southern Iraq, dating to the Akkadian period (roughly 2350–2150 BCE). It records jars of beer — two larger and two smaller — along with a surplus note and a total expressed in barley equivalent. The final line, noting six years and eight months, likely refers to a storage or accounting period. Such tablets are the everyday paperwork of a Mesopotamian institutional economy, tracking the flow of beer and grain through a temple or palace storehouse.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Translation · reference
Medium confidence2 jugs (of) 5-ban capacity: beer 2 jugs (of) 3-ban capacity: beer ne-sag surplus Total: 2 barig 4 ban — its barley equivalent 6 years, 8 months
Source: engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation)
Translation · AI engine
read from photo2 jugs (of) 5-ban capacity: beer 2 jugs (of) 3-ban capacity: beer ne-sag surplus Total: 2 barig 4 ban — its barley equivalent 6 years, 8 months
5 uncertain terms ↓
- ne-sag diri — ne-sag is a Sumerian term often interpreted as a type of premium or first-quality allocation; diri means 'surplus' or 'excess'. The combination could mean 'ne-sag surplus' — an overage on a premium beer allocation — but the exact administrative meaning in this context is debated.
- sze-bi — Literally 'its barley' — a standard formula converting a commodity total into its barley equivalent for accounting purposes. Translation as 'barley equivalent' is conventional.
- 6(disz@t) mu 8(disz@t) iti — Literally '6 years, 8 months'. The administrative function of this notation is unclear; it may record a cumulative accounting period or a date, but parallels are not straightforward. Could also be read as part of a running total formula.
- 2(asz@c) dug — The asz@c sign denotes a capacity jar; dug is the generic word for 'jug/vessel'. The exact vessel type and its precise volume in liters is subject to ongoing metrology debates.
- 3(ban2@c) — The @c modifier on ban2 may indicate a specific variant of the ban measure; standard reading accepted here but sign variant noted.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows a small, well-preserved clay tablet with visible horizontal ruling lines dividing the text into registers. The obverse (upper piece in the photo) displays clear cuneiform wedges; I can make out numerical signs at the left of each line and what appear to be DUG (jar) and KAŠ (beer) signs in the first two lines, consistent with the transliteration. The ne-sag and šunigin (total) line signs are harder to confirm at this resolution but the wedge groupings are consistent. The reverse or lower tablet fragment (bottom of photo) shows two lines that likely correspond to the barley-total and year/month lines; the signs are less sharp but not contradictory. The museum accession number 'AO 19762' is clearly inked on the surface. The transliteration uses standard Ur III/Akkadian administrative formulae for beer-jar accounts with barley equivalencies, which is well paralleled at Umma. The '6 years 8 months' notation is unusual and its precise administrative function is uncertain — it could indicate a period of storage, a date reckoning, or an accumulation span. Photo resolution is insufficient to fully verify every sign, hence medium confidence.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 12, 2026 · 2501 in / 869 out tokens
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(asz@c) dug 5(ban2) kasz 2(asz@c) dug 3(ban2@c) kasz ne-sag diri szunigin 2(barig) 4(ban2) sze-bi 6(disz@t) mu 8(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — AAS 009. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P212445) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation).
Related tablets
Related sources
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.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.