Position in chronology
MCS 9, 261
About this tablet
An agricultural survey record from Umma in southern Iraq, written in the Sargonic (Old Akkadian) period, around 2300 BCE. Officials tallied parcels of farmland held or worked by three named men, distinguishing land sown with barley from another category of ground (perhaps fallow or bare land), and noting one plot left uncultivated. The fields lie in the Gu-edina, the fertile plain famously disputed between the cities of Umma and Lagash, and the closing note of 'five years, three months' suggests the record covers a defined term of tenure or cultivation.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A land audit: Amar-su holds about an iku (a third of a hectare) plus another damaged amount of unsown ground; En-anatum holds one eše (about 2 hectares) under barley and a full bur (about 6.5 hectares) of unsown land; Lu-Šara holds half an iku under barley and one and a half iku unsown. Altogether that makes one eše and one and a half iku of barley field — the 'long field' planted with white barley. The courier's field was left unworked. All of this lies in the irrigated district of the Gu-edina plain, in the Nigar(-gusur) tract, where the surveyor's measuring cord was stretched. The record covers a span of five years and three months.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 1(iku)(?) of UD-land, [n] of UD-land(?) — 2. (for) Amar-su; 3. 1(eše) of barley(-land), 1(bur) of [UD-land] — 4. (for) En-anatum; 5. ½(iku) of barley(-land), 1(iku) ½(iku) of UD-land — 6. (for) Lu-Šara. 7. Total: 1(eše) 1(iku) ½(iku) of barley field, 8. the "long field" of white barley; 9. field of the courier (sukkal), field not worked (uncultivated); 10. the irrigated district of the Gu-edina; 11. Nigar(-)gusur — (where) the (measuring) cord was drawn; 12. 5 years, 3 months.
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(iku@c)#? UD@g@v [n] UD@g@v#? amar-su4# 1(esze3@c) sze 1(bur3@c)# [UD@g@v] en-an-na#-tum2# 1/2(iku@c) sze 1(iku@c) 1/2(iku@c) UD@g@v lu2-szara2 szunigin 1(esze3@c) 1(iku@c) 1/2(iku@c) sze GAN2 a-sza3 gid2-da# sze# babbar-a GAN2 sukkal GAN2 nu#-ak agar4 gu2-edin-na nigar# gu#-sur 5(disz@t)# mu 3(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MCS 9, 261. 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 (P215532) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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