Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/3, pl. 245, Bod S 295
About this tablet
A small administrative tablet from Umma in southern Iraq, dating to the Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly 2300–2100 BCE. It records rations or allocations of brewing and milling commodities — beer-bread, groats, malt, and various grades of flour — under the authority of an official named Mama-ḫursag. The tablet gives a monthly summary total and is dated by regnal year and month. Such tablets are the everyday paperwork of a temple or state granary, tracking the movement of staple goods used in bread-making and brewing.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Translation · reference
Medium confidence2 barig of bappir (beer-bread) of Akkadian (type) 2 barig of groats 2 barig of malt 2 barig of flour 2 ban of fine flour (responsible official:) Mama-ḫursag Total: 1 gur 3 barig 2 ban of flour, Akkadian (type) 2 ban of fine flour 3rd year, 7th month
Source: engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation)
Translation · AI engine
read from photo2 barig of bappir (beer-bread) of Akkadian (type) 2 barig of groats 2 barig of malt 2 barig of flour 2 ban of fine flour (responsible official:) Mama-ḫursag Total: 1 gur 3 barig 2 ban of flour, Akkadian (type) 2 ban of fine flour 3rd year, 7th month
5 uncertain terms ↓
- bappir a-ga-de3 — 'Akkadian bappir' — bappir is standardly translated 'beer-bread' (a fermentation ingredient); the qualifier a-ga-de3 ('of Akkad/Akkadian') likely denotes a specific quality or recipe type. The precise distinction from other bappir types is not fully understood.
- nig2-ar3-ra — Conventionally translated 'groats' (coarsely ground grain). Some scholars render it 'flour of a specific grade'; context supports the groats reading here.
- zi3-sig15@v — 'Fine flour' or 'sifted flour'; the sign value sig15 with the @v modifier indicates a specific high-quality milled product. The exact grade and its cultic or ration use remain debated.
- ITIx(|UDxsxTIL|) — A compound month sign, one of the Akkadian-period month names at Umma. The precise month name it encodes is not universally agreed; cannot verify the exact sign cluster from the photograph at this resolution.
- 3(disz@t) mu 7(disz@g) — '3rd year, 7th month' — the regnal year is not identified with a specific king in this tablet; it would have been understood by contemporary readers from context. Cannot determine whose reign from this text alone.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows two faces of a small, well-preserved lenticular/bun-shaped tablet with clearly ruled horizontal lines. The wedge impressions are legible across most of the surface, though some signs in the lower right corner of the obverse are slightly eroded. The museum label '8295' (read as 'S 295' in the catalog) is visible on the left edge piece. On the obverse I can make out repeated sign groups consistent with capacity measures (the barig and ban notation) followed by commodity signs; the groupings align well with the transliteration's four 2-barig entries plus a 2-ban entry. The personal name Mama-ḫursag is visible as a two-line group. The reverse shows the summary line and date formula; the large numeral groups and the ITI (month) sign are discernible, consistent with the transliteration. The month sign ITIx(|UDxSTIL|) is a compound sign for a specific month name that cannot be fully resolved from the photo at this resolution. The Akkadian-period Umma provenance is consistent with the sign forms and the mention of 'Akkadian-type' bappir, which is a known commodity distinction in this corpus.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 12, 2026 · 2726 in / 967 out tokens
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(barig@c) bappir a-ga-de3 2(barig@c) nig2-ar3-ra 2(barig@c) munu4 2(barig@c) zi3 2(ban2@c) zi3-sig15@v ma-ma-hur-sag szunigin 1(asz@c) 3(barig@c) 2(ban2@c) zi3 gur a-ga-de3 2(ban2@c) zi3-sig15@v 3(disz@t) mu 7(disz@g) ITIx(|UDxsxTIL|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — AAICAB 1/3, pl. 245, Bod S 295. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P249200) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation).
Related tablets
Related sources
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.