MAD 5, 014

About this tablet

A short personnel list from Kish in central Iraq, written in the Old Akkadian period around 2300–2200 BCE, when Sargon's dynasty ruled Mesopotamia. Five men are listed by name and counted as workmen, then the same total of five is given again as messengers. Two further names stand between the two totals. The tablet shows how the Akkadian state tracked the small teams of couriers who carried orders and goods across the empire, and most of the names are Semitic Akkadian rather than Sumerian.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

The tablet names five men: Lagibum, La'arab, Naḫan (the reading is uncertain), Puzuzu and Bēlī-Sîn, one man each, five workmen in all. Two more names follow, Ilak-nu'id and Erda'u. The list ends with a second total of five men, this time described as messengers. The first few names are partly damaged at the start of the line.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

Obverse(?) 1. [1 La]gibum 2. [1] La'arab 3. [1] Naḫan(?) 4. 1 Puzuzu 5. 1 Bēlī-Sîn 6. Total: 5 workmen. 7. Ilak-nu'id 8. Erda'u(?) 9. Total: 5 messengers (lit. 'men sent on errands').

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

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(asz@c) la]-gi-bum
[1(asz@c)] la#-'a3-ra-ab
[1(asz@c)] na#?-ha#-an
1(asz@c) pu3-zu-zu
1(asz@c) be-li2-suen
szu-nigin2 5(asz@c) gurusz
i3-la-ak-nu-id
er3-da-u3#?
szu-nigin2 5(asz@c) lu2 kin-gi4-a

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 014. 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 (P215341) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).

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