Position in chronology
MVN 03, 022
About this tablet
An accounting tablet from the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE), recording a flock inspection: 150 sheep and goats counted as the 'selected' stock under a man named Kakugani, with a temple administrator named as the responsible official. A second, smaller tally — eight animals — is booked as the year's deficit, the shortfall between what should be on hand and what actually is. It is the ancient equivalent of an annual stocktake, showing how closely Mesopotamian institutions audited their herds.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Inventory of livestock: 85 top-grade nanny goats, 40 top-grade ewes, 20 rams, and 5 young male goats — the animals selected and counted under Kakugani, with Dingirne serving as temple administrator. Against this, the books show a shortfall: one kid (the figure is slightly damaged), five nanny goats, one ewe, and one ram are missing from the selected stock. That is the deficit recorded for the year.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 85 prime nanny goats, 2. 40 prime ewes, 3. 20 rams, 4. 5 male kids: 5. (these are) the selected animals 6. of Kakugani; 7. Dingirne (is) the temple administrator. 8. 1(?) kid, 9. 5 [prime] nanny goats, 10. 1 [prime] ewe, 11. 1 ram: 12. (this is) the deficit; 13. it is (part) of the selected animals; 14. it is for the (one) year.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
1(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) 5(asz@c) ud5 sag 4(u@c) u8 sag 2(u@c) udu-nita 5(asz@c) masz2-nita nig2-pa-da KA-ku3-ga-ni dingir-ne sanga 1(asz@c)? masz2 5(asz@c) ud5# [sag] 1(asz@c) u8 [sag] 1(asz@c) udu-nita# la2-ia3 nig2#-pa-da-kam mu-a-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MVN 03, 022. 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: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P215680) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.