Position in chronology
AAS 012
About this tablet
A small administrative tablet from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, dating to the Akkadian period (roughly 2350–2150 BCE). It records the disbursement of sheep and lambs — some identified as specially selected animals — distributed among named individuals, a cook, and a sacred precinct associated with the Abzu (the underground freshwater). The grand total of fourteen sheep and nine lambs is summed at the bottom and marked as 'expended,' meaning officially issued from a temple or palace storehouse. Tablets like this were the day-to-day paperwork of Mesopotamian institutional economies, tracking livestock flows with meticulous care.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Translation · reference
Medium confidence2 sheep chosen by heart, 1 lamb, (for the) edge/side of UD-ḪUB₂, 1 lamb (for) Dumuzi, 1 lamb (for) Lugal-pa-e₃, 1 sheep (for the) cook, 5 lambs (for) Abzu, [1]1 sheep — (animal) returned/replaced, Total: 14 sheep, 9 lambs, Expended (issued/disbursed).
Source: engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation)
Translation · AI engine
read from photo2 sheep chosen by heart, 1 lamb, (for the) edge/side of UD-ḪUB₂, 1 lamb (for) Dumuzi, 1 lamb (for) Lugal-pa-e₃, 1 sheep (for the) cook, 5 lambs (for) Abzu, [1]1 sheep — (animal) returned/replaced, Total: 14 sheep, 9 lambs, Expended (issued/disbursed).
5 uncertain terms ↓
- sza3-ge pa3-da — 'Chosen by/from the heart' — a technical term for specially selected animals, likely of cultic quality. The precise nuance (selected by oracle, by inspection, or for a specific ritual purpose) is debated.
- UD-ḪUB₂ — Reading uncertain (marked # in transliteration). Possibly a personal name, a place, or a cultic designation. Cannot be confirmed from the photograph at this resolution.
- masz#? szu-gi4-gi4 — Both signs marked uncertain. 'szu-gi4-gi4' can mean 'returned,' 'replaced,' or 'given back.' If 'masz' is correct, it may indicate a goat rather than a sheep, complicating the total count; alternatively it may be a verb or qualifier. The '#?' notation in the transliteration signals low confidence.
- zi-ga — 'Expended' / 'issued' / 'disbursed' — standard Sumerian administrative term for goods officially removed from store. Rendered 'expended' here following conventional practice.
- [1(u@c)] 1(asz@c) — The ten-unit sign is restored in brackets (broken). The total '14 sheep, 9 (= 10 minus 1) lambs' depends on this restoration; it is standard in Umma administrative arithmetic but cannot be independently verified from the photograph.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows a small, roughly square clay tablet in two views (obverse and reverse/case), plus what appear to be edge views on the left and right — this looks like an envelope-and-tablet combination or a tablet with a clay case. The museum accession number 'AO 19721' is painted in blue ink on the reverse/case, confirming the catalog identification. The obverse carries several lines of cuneiform; individual wedges are visible but resolution makes sign-by-sign confirmation difficult. The uppermost lines are somewhat eroded and the surface shows some wear and a dark discolouration patch mid-tablet consistent with the '#' uncertain markers in the transliteration. The final few lines on the lower portion (reverse) show horizontal ruling and what appear to be numerical and sign groupings consistent with a summary line. I can broadly confirm the layout — numerical signs at the left margin, text to the right — and the summary/total structure matches the transliteration's 'szunigin' and 'zi-ga' lines. Specific sign readings such as 'masz#? szu-gi4#-gi4' and 'UD#-HUB2#' cannot be individually verified from the photo at this resolution; the '#' flags in the transliteration are accepted on scholarly authority. The Umma provenance and Akkadian period dating are consistent with this type of livestock-disbursement administrative document.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 12, 2026 · 2878 in / 1044 out tokens
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(asz@c) udu# sza3-ge pa3-da 1(asz@c) sila4 za3 UD#-HUB2# 1(asz@c) sila4 dumu-zi 1(asz@c) sila4 lugal-pa-e3 1(asz@c) udu muhaldim 5(asz@c) sila4 ab-zu [1(u@c)] 1(asz@c) udu masz#? szu-gi4#-gi4 szunigin 1(u@c) 4(asz@c) udu 1(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) sila4 zi-ga
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — AAS 012. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P212448) — 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.