Position in chronology
HSS 10, 024
About this tablet
A land-survey record from Gasur (the later Nuzi, in northern Iraq) during the Old Akkadian period, roughly 2300 BCE. A surveyor-scribe measured out rectangular plots of farmland — noting width, length, and computed area — and assigned or credited each parcel to a named individual. Such tablets are among our earliest evidence for systematic field measurement and applied geometry, centuries before formal mathematics texts appear.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a field surveyor's worksheet. The first plot measures 30 rods across and 120 rods long, both pairs of sides equal — a regular rectangle — giving an area of 2 bur (about 13 hectares); it belongs to Itur-EN[...]. A second plot, 20 rods wide and 60 rods long, is registered under a man whose name begins Da-; the entry is damaged. A third plot, 20 by 120 rods, is booked as 2 bur under Išbu. A final line adds 1 bur of field at Dada's levee.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 30 (nindan) — the width(s) being equal; 2. 120 (nindan) — the length(s) being [equal]; 3. its area: 2 bur3 of field — 4. Itur-EN[...]. 5. 20 (nindan) — the width(s) being [equal]; 6. [...] 60 (nindan) — the length(s) being [equal]; 7. Da-[...]. 8. 20 (nindan) — the width(s) being equal; 9. 120 (nindan) — the length(s) being equal; 10. its area: 2 bur3 of field — 11. Išbu. 12. 1 bur3 of field, (at) the levee of Dada.
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
3(u@c) sag i3-sa2 2(gesz2@c) us2 i3-[sa2] a-sza3-bi 2(bur3@c) GAN2 i-tur2-EN-[...] 2(u@c) sag i3-[sa2] [...] 1(gesz2@c) us2 i3-[sa2] da-[...] 2(u@c) sag i3-sa2 2(gesz2@c) us2 i3-sa2 a-sza3-bi 2(bur3@c) GAN2 isz-bu3 1(bur3@c) GAN2 E da-da
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — HSS 10, 024. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P213290) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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