Position in chronology
MCS 9, 258
About this tablet
A small administrative receipt from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, written in the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE). It records a delivery of emmer wheat and threshed barley harvested from two named fields — one of them belonging to Šara, the patron god of Umma — into the hands of the granary supervisor Adda-tur, with an official named Ur-teš overseeing the transaction. It is a snapshot of the grain economy that underpinned Mesopotamian city life: harvest in, receipt issued, responsible officials named.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a grain receipt. The opening lines, partly broken, record a plot of land and a small measure of barley; the total field area is given as about 49 šar. The main entry is 4 gur and 2 ban of emmer wheat, measured by the official saggal-gur standard and certified as correct, together with threshed barley. The grain came from the irrigated tract of the field called Latur and from the field of the god Šara. Dada, associated with Ninkalla, delivered it; Adda-tur, the granary supervisor, took receipt, and Ur-teš acted as the supervising official who authorized the transfer.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 1 [šar of field ...] 2. 2 ban ... KA [of barley?] 3. its field (area): [49 šar]; 4. 4 gur 2 ban of emmer, (measured in) the saggal-gur, correct (measure), 5. barley threshed (lit. 'beaten with the stick'), 6. (from) the irrigated tract of the field La-tur 7. (and) the field of (the god) Šara. 8. Dada (son of?) Ninkalla; 9. Adda-tur, 10. the granary supervisor, received (it). 11. Ur-teš was the bailiff (maškim).
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
1(asz@c) [szar GAN2 ...] 2(ban2@c) KA [sze?] a-sza3-bi [4(u) 9(disz) szar] 4(asz) 2(ban2) ziz2 gur# sag-gal2 si-[sa2] sze gesz ra-[a] agar4 a-sza3 la2-tur a-sza3 szara2 da-da nin-kal-la ad-da-tur ka-guru7 szu ba-ti ur-tesz2 maszkim
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MCS 9, 258. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: World Museum Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (P215529) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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