Position in chronology
MAD 5, 011
About this tablet
A short labour roster from Kish, written in the time of the Akkad dynasty (around 2300–2150 BCE). It counts work gangs of men under named foremen: ten under the overseer Ida-ilum, ten with Ipqum, seven with Aḫuḫu, and five with Puzur-Eštar, adding up correctly to thirty-two men. A royal envoy or courier, Ilī-gal, is also named, perhaps as the official responsible for some of the men. It is a small but typical piece of the paperwork behind the Akkadian state's use of organised labour.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Ten workmen are under the overseer Ida-ilum. Ipqum has ten, Aḫuḫu has seven, and Puzur-Eštar has five. Ilī-gal, the envoy, is also named in the list. In total there are thirty-two workmen. The last word, "biru", is unclear. It may name a place, a task or a heading for the account.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse(?) 1. 10 workmen: 2. overseer: Ida-ilum. 3. 10: Ipqum. 4. 7: Aḫuḫu. 5. Ilī-gal, the envoy (sukkal). 6. 5: Puzur-Eštar. 7. Total: 32 workmen. 8. bi-ru.
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(u@c) _gurusz_ _ugula_ i-da-dingir 1(u@c) ip-qum 7(asz@c) a-hu-hu i3-li2-gal _sukkal_ 5(asz@c) puzur4-esz18-dar _szu-nigin2_ 3(u@c) 2(asz@c) _gurusz_ bi-ru
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 011. 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 (P215338) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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