Position in chronology
CUSAS 11, 283
About this tablet
An agricultural yield record from Akkadian-period Adab (modern Bismaya, southern Iraq), probably dating to around 2300–2100 BCE. It logs 143 gur of barley — approximately 43,000 liters — from a field of 1 bur3 (roughly six to seven hectares), dated to the 7th day of the barley-harvest month. Two individuals are named as the field-holders: Mu-nu11-mah and Ibni-Suen, the latter bearing a standard Akkadian theophoric name meaning 'the moon-god Suen created him.' Tablets like this formed the daily paperwork of Mesopotamian agricultural management, tying produce quantities to land areas, calendar dates, and named responsible persons.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A field of one bur3 produced 143 gur of barley. The entry is dated to the 7th day of the month of Še-sag-kal. The field is held by Mu-nu11-mah, and [by Gada-gar-Ib]-ni-Suen — this document identifies them as the responsible parties. The opening portion of the final name is damaged and has been reconstructed; the rest of the tablet is intact.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine143 gur of barley — its field-area: 1 bur3. Month of Še-sag-kal, day 7. Field of Mu-nu11-mah; [Field of Gada-gar-Ib]-ni-Suen — it is (this).
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
2(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) 3(asz@c) sze gur 1(bur3@c) GAN2-bi iti sze-sag-kal u4 7(disz@t) GAN2 mu#-nu11-mah [GAN2 gada-GAR-ib]-ni-suen#-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — CUSAS 11, 283. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CUNES 48-08-156 (Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P322884). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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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.
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.