Position in chronology
MAD 5, 030
About this tablet
A small accounting memorandum in Old Akkadian from the city of Kish, written during the Akkadian empire (around 2300 BCE). It records a payment of silver: two men, Edamu and Šuruš-kīn, received silver from a man named Warassuni, with a balance still owed against them. Documents like this are the everyday paper trail of silver changing hands in Mesopotamia's first territorial empire — quick notes a bookkeeper kept so that outstanding balances would not be forgotten.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Edamu (together with, or son of, Šuruš-kīn) received silver from Warassuni: 4½ shekels of silver in one entry, and 1 mina 5 shekels credited to Edamu in another. The note closes with the bookkeeper's reminder: a balance still stands against them — the account is not yet settled.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. Edamu 2. (and/son of?) Šuruš-kīn 3. from 4. Warassuni received: 5. 4 1/2 shekels of silver; 6. 1 mina 5 shekels — Edamu. 7. The remainder 8. against them 9. is [outstanding].
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
e-da-mu# su-ru-usz-gi isz-te4 ARAD2-su2-ni im-hur# 4(asz@c) 1/2(asz@c) _gin2 ku3-babbar_ 1(asz@c) _ma-na_ 5(asz@c) _gin2_ e-da-mu si-tum al#-su#-ni i#-[ba-szi4]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 030. 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 (P215355) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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