Position in chronology
MCS 4, 014 04
About this tablet
A grain-ration or commodity-distribution tablet from the Akkadian period (roughly 2350–2150 BCE), recording measured quantities of barley — given in the standard Mesopotamian capacity measures of gur, barig, and ban — against a series of named individuals. The last line names 'Ki-ti' as the foreman (ugula) responsible for the group, a title used for the supervisor of a labor or ration unit. Tablets like this are the everyday paperwork of Mesopotamian state administration: someone had to account for every measure of grain issued to workers or dependents, and a named overseer was held responsible. The personal names here — In-zu, Ba-ru-uk-si-ir, A-ti-ti — suggest a mixed workforce typical of the Akkadian empire, where Sumerian, Akkadian, and possibly foreign names appear side by side on the same administrative list.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] x [...]-mu-ti [...]-te-bi-si-ir 1 gur 4 barig x-ru-uk?-x 1 gur 2 barig — In-zu 1 gur 4 barig — Ba-ru-uk-si-ir 2 gur — A-ti-ti 1 gur 4 barig — Ki-ti n gur 1 [barig] x — Im-ma [...] mul [...] n gur 4 barig 2 ban barley, gur [...] x-gar Foreman: Ki-ti
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Engine notes
read from photo9 uncertain terms ↓
- asz@c, barig@c, ban2@c — Capacity measure signs written in the round/circular Akkadian style. 1 gur = 5 barig = 60 ban2 in standard Old Akkadian metrology, but local variants exist.
- ba-ru-uk-si-ir / x-ru-uk?-x — Likely a personal name (Akkadian); reading uncertain, especially the initial element in the broken line. Possibly Baruksir or similar.
- in-zu — Personal name; possibly Sumerian or Akkadian hypocoristic. Could relate to the divine name Sîn (dEN.ZU) used as a personal name element.
- a2-ti-ti — Personal name; reading and etymology uncertain.
- ki-ti — Personal name appearing both as a recipient (line 8) and as the named foreman (ugula) in the final line; may be the same individual or a coincidence of similar names.
- ugula# — Sumerian 'overseer / foreman'; the # indicates the sign is partially preserved on the tablet.
- mul — Possibly 'star' (Sumerian) or a personal name element or commodity; context is broken and unclear.
- im-ma — Could be a personal name element, a commodity (clay?), or a verb form; context is too broken to determine.
- x-gar3 — Broken; gar3 could mean 'place/deposit' or be part of a name; the preceding sign is illegible.
Reasoning ↓
Visual examination of the main tablet face (central upper image) shows a clay tablet fragment, roughly triangular due to breakage at the lower left. The surface preserves moderately clear horizontal ruling lines separating entries, consistent with an administrative/account document. Wedge impressions are visible in several rows and largely legible in the upper portion, becoming less clear and more damaged toward the lower right. I can confirm the presence of large capacity signs (round-formed numerals typical of the Akkadian period, using the circular and semi-circular impressed signs for gur/barig values) in rows 4–9, consistent with the transliteration's 1(asz@c), 2(asz@c), 4(barig@c) notations. The word-signs following the numerals are harder to verify individually at this resolution but several multi-wedge sign clusters are consistent with personal names or commodity designations as transliterated. The bottom portion of the reverse (lower images) shows only two or three lines of text, heavily abraded, which corresponds to the sparse final lines of the transliteration. The transliteration 'ugula# ki-ti' in the final line is consistent with a typical Akkadian-period administrative closing line naming an overseer. The '#' on ugula indicates partial preservation, which matches the observed surface wear. No significant discrepancies between photo and transliteration were detected, though several broken/unclear signs (marked x in the transliteration) cannot be independently resolved from the photograph. This appears to be a grain or commodity allocation list, probably Old Akkadian, recording measured amounts of barley (sze) in gur and barig units distributed to or associated with named individuals, under the oversight of a foreman (ugula) named ki-ti.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 3130 in / 1035 out tokens
Transliteration
[...] x [...]-mu-ti [...]-te-bi-si-ir 1(asz@c) 4(barig@c) x-ru-uk?-x 1(asz@c) 2(barig@c) in-zu 1 (asz) 4(barig) ba-ru-uk-si-ir 2(asz@c) a2-ti-ti 1(asz@c) 4(barig@c) ki-ti n 1(asz@c) x im-ma [...] mul [...] n 4(barig@c) 2(ban2@c) sze gur [...] x-gar3 ugula# ki-ti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MCS 4, 014 04. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: World Museum Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (P112758) — 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.