Position in chronology
MAD 5, 032
About this tablet
A badly damaged Old Akkadian tablet from Kish, in central Iraq, dating to the Sargonic period (roughly 2300–2150 BCE). What survives looks like the record of a statement or dispute: someone 'said' something concerning a woman (someone's wife), and a man named Naḫšum-bala is involved; the closing line locates the matter 'in Irisagrig', a city known from thousands of later administrative texts. Even in this broken state it shows the everyday legal and administrative reach of the Akkadian empire, linking people across cities like Kish and Irisagrig.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Only scraps of this document remain. It opens with what may be a reference to the city of Urua and the phrase 'to...', then turns to a matter 'concerning the wife of' someone whose name is lost. A party made a statement — 'he said' — apparently denying or refusing something ('he did not go out', or 'did not release'). A man called Naḫšum-bala is named next. The following lines are too broken to read beyond stray words, including 'city'. The text closes by placing the affair in the city of Irisagrig.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. Urua(?) ... to [...] 2. concerning the wife [of ...] 3. he said, [and] 4. he did not go out(?) [...] / did [not] re[lease(?) ...] 5. [Na]ḫšum-[bala] 6. [...] ... [...] 7. [...] (the) city [...] 8. [...] ... [...] 9. [...] 10. in(?) Irisa[grig].
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
urua#?-ma a-[na] al dam-[...] iq#-bi2-[ma] [u3?]-la u-zi-[...] [na]-ah-szum-[bala] [...] BAD [...] [...] iri [...] [...] ti [...] [...] in#? iri-sa12-[rig7]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 032. 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 (P215357) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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