Position in chronology
MAD 5, 025
About this tablet
A short livestock account from Kish in central Iraq, written in the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, around 2300–2200 BCE, when the city belonged to the kings of Akkad. It notes who took charge of sheep. About fifty-nine animals went to a man probably named Šu-Enlil, a further lot went to a cook who was acting for a commissioner, and a single sheep went to Bubu. The cooks and the mention of the king point to supplies for a royal kitchen or banquet. The tablet is damaged, so some of the names and one of the totals are lost.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Fifty-nine sheep (the scribe writes this as sixty minus one) were taken into the keeping of Šu-Enlil, though his name is partly broken. Another batch went to a cook, whose number and name are lost, and he received it on behalf of the commissioner. One more sheep was handed to Bubu, a man of someone whose name is missing, who served as cook to the king. The record is a plain list of who received how many animals, probably meat for the royal table.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse(?) 1. 59(?) sheep (lit. 60 less 1): 2. [Šu]-Enlil(?) 3. [rec]eived (ŠU.DU8). 4. [n sheep] 5. [......] 6. the cook 7. for 8. the commissioner 9. received (ŠU.DU8). 10. 1 sheep: 11. Bubu(?), 12. the man of [......] 13. the king, 14. the cook, 15. received (ŠU.DU8).
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(gesz2@c)#? la2 1(asz@c) _udu_ [szu?]-en-lil2 [_szu]-du8_ [n _udu_] [...] _muhaldim_ a-na _maszkim_ _szu-du8_ 1(asz@c) _udu_ bu3#?-bu3#? _lu2_ [...] _lugal_ _muhaldim_ _szu-du8_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 025. 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 (P215351) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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