Position in chronology
MRAH O.5010
About this tablet
An administrative receipt from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly 2300–2150 BCE, recording the distribution of sheep. A livestock official named Girini handed out batches of 'taka'-sheep — probably animals set aside or left over from the main flock — to four named men, and a scribe totalled the issue. It is the ordinary bookkeeping of a Mesopotamian herding economy, and its small arithmetic slip (the entries add to 49, not the stated 50) is a reminder that ancient accountants were human too.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a handout record. Four men each received a lot of sheep from the 'set-aside' (taka) category: E-zi-šagal got eighteen (written '20 minus 2'), Ur-sag twelve, Ur-Enlil — son of E-šu — nine ('10 minus 1'), and A-geštin ten. The clerk booked the grand total as fifty such sheep, and the document closes by naming who made the disbursement: Girini, the cattle administrator, gave the animals to these men.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obv. 1) 20 minus 2 (= 18) taka-sheep (udu-taka): E-zi-šagal; (2) 12: Ur-sag; (3) 10 minus 1 (= 9): Ur-Enlil, (4) son of E-šu; (5) 10: A-geštin. (6) Its total: 50 taka-sheep. (7) Girini, the cattle administrator, (8) gave (them) to them.
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
2(u@c)# la2 2(asz@c) udu takax(LAK492) e2-zi-sza3-gal2 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) ur-sag 1(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) ur-en-lil2 dumu e2-szu12 1(u@c)# a-gesztin szu-nigin2-bi 5(u@c) udu takax(LAK492) giri3-ni szusz3 in-ne-szum2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MRAH O.5010. 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: Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels, Belgium (P452984) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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Related sources
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