Position in chronology
MAD 5, 007
About this tablet
A small roster of workmen from the city of Kish in central Mesopotamia, dating to the Old Akkadian period (c. 2350–2200 BCE). A scribe lists nine men by name — a mix of Akkadian and Sumerian names, including one invoking the moon-god Suen — and totals them, apparently assigning them to a place or institution whose name is only partly preserved. Such head-counts were the basic paperwork by which the Akkadian administration mobilized and tracked labor.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a personnel checklist. The top of the tablet is broken, but the surviving entries count one man each: Ha-..., Salim-ahu, Zuzu, Puzuzu, Bala-ea, Imi-ilum, Mulu-šum, and Išma-Suen. The scribe then adds them up in the ancient accountant's way — 'ten less one', that is, nine workmen in all — and notes the place or unit they belong to, a name beginning Harsi..., written after a city-sign. The rest of the tablet is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Beginning destroyed) 1 Ha-[...] 1 Salim-[ahu] 1 Zu-[zu] 1 Puzuzu 1 Bala-ea 1 Imi-ilum 1 Mulu-šum 1 Išma-Suen Total: 10 less 1 (= 9) [able-bodied men], (of/at) |URU+TAR| Harsi[...] (rest destroyed)
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
[...] 1(asz@c) ha#-[...] 1(asz@c) sa2-lim-[a-hu] 1(asz@c) zu-[zu] 1(asz@c) pu3-zu-zu 1(asz@c) bala-e2-a 1(asz@c) i-mi-dingir 1(asz@c) mu-lu-szum 1(asz@c) isz-ma2-suen szu-nigin2 1(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) [gurusz] |URU+TAR| har-si#?-[...] [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 007. 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: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P215335) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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