Position in chronology
MAD 5, 031
About this tablet
A small accounting tablet from Kish in the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE), recording measured amounts of grain — most likely rations or disbursements — issued to named individuals. The recipients include a scribe named Lugal-itida and a man called Ili-bilani, identified by his father's title or name. It is a scrap of everyday bureaucracy from one of Mesopotamia's oldest cities, showing how literate officials tracked even modest quantities of barley person by person.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a short ledger entry. An overseer whose name begins 'Apum-...' heads the list; the rest of his name is broken away. Lugal-itida, the scribe, receives three ban of grain less three sila — that is, 27 sila, roughly 27 liters — counted as one allotment. Ili-bilani, son of the enku-official (a kind of tax or fisheries collector), receives four barig, about 240 liters, likewise counted as one allotment. Nothing more survives.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obv.) 1. [the ov]erseer A-pum-[...] 2. 3 ban less 3 sila (of barley), 1 (unit/person): Lugal-iti[da], 3. the scribe; 4. 4 barig (of barley), 1 (unit/person): Ili-bilani, 5. son of the enku-official (or: son of Enku).
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
[nu]-banda3 a-pum#?-[...] 3(ban2@c)# la2 3(disz@t) sila3 1(asz@c) lugal-iti-[da] dub-sar 4(barig@c) 1(asz@c) i3-li2-bi-la-ni dumu en-ku3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 031. 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 (P215356) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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