Position in chronology
MAD 5, 029
About this tablet
A short personnel list from Kish in central Iraq, written in the Sargonic (Old Akkadian) period around 2300 BCE, when Sargon's dynasty ruled Mesopotamia. Each entry counts one worker by name and assigns him to a named foreman, the basic way gangs of laborers or dependants were tracked. The names are mostly Semitic Akkadian, such as Ilšu-aḫa, 'His god is a brother', and Nīšu-dannam, 'His people are strong', which reflects the Akkadian-speaking population of Kish at the time. The tablet's purpose (rations, a labor draft, or a muster) is not stated in the surviving lines.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet lists individual workers, one per entry, each under his foreman. The first surviving line names the foreman Ilili, whose worker's name is lost. Ilala is assigned to the foreman Kuku. Ilšu-aḫa works under Lu-ušudu. Iš-esinat is under Nīšu-dannam. The list may have begun on a part of the tablet that is not included here.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Beginning destroyed?) 1. [foreman:] Ilili; 2. 1 (man): Ilala, 3. foreman: Kuku; 4. 1 (man): Ilšu-aḫa, 5. foreman: Lu-ušudu (lu₂-uš₂-udu); 6. 1 (man): Iš-esinat (iš₁₁-e-si-na-at), 7. foreman: Nīšu-dannam.
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
[ugula] i-li2-li2 1(asz@c) i3-la-la ugula ku-ku 1(asz@c) dingir-su-a-ha ugula lu2-usz2-udu 1(asz@c) isz11-e-si-na-at ugula ni-su-dan-nam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 029. 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 (P215354) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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