MAD 5, 015

About this tablet

A short personnel roster from Kish in the Old Akkadian period, around 2300–2200 BCE. It lists men by name, sometimes with their fathers' names, and gives a total of fifteen workmen in a gang under a foreman called Elili. The final word marks them as 'present' or 'resident', so this is likely a roll-call of who was actually on hand for work. It is the routine labour bookkeeping of the Sargonic state.

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

Written in modern English

This is a roster of a work gang. It names Lagibum son of Išma'ani, Imtalik, Ilum-dan, two men called U-ili (the second entry is partly broken), a group of five recorded as PAP-PAP, and Illala, whose father's name is damaged. The total is fifteen workmen under their foreman, Elili. All of them are recorded as present.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

Obverse(?) 1. 1 Lagibum, 2. son of Išma'ani; 3. 1 Imtalik; 4. 1 Ilum-dan (DINGIR-KAL); 5. 1 U-ili; 6. 1 U-ili [......]; 7. 5 PAP-PAP; 8. 1 Illala, 9. son of AN-[......]; 10. [To]tal: 15 workmen (guruš), 11. foreman: Elili; 12. present (wāšibū).

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.

Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.

Transliteration

1(asz@c) la-gi-bum
_dumu_ isz-ma2-a-ni
1(asz@c) im6-ta2-lik
1(asz@c) dingir-kal
1(asz@c) u3-i3-li2#
1(asz@c) u3-i3-li2 [...]
5(asz@c) PAP-PAP
1(asz@c) il-la-la
_dumu_ AN#-[...]
[_szu]-nigin2#_ 1(u@c) 5(asz@c) _gurusz_
_ugula_ e-li2-li2
wa-si-bu

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 015. 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 (P215342) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet (VAT 15211)

An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.

~2050 BCE

Umma Livestock and Personnel Account (AnOr 1, 243)

A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.

~3300 BCE

AoF 30, 238,1