MAD 5, 033

About this tablet

A personnel roster from the city of Kish in the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE), listing workmen one by one — each with his father's name — grouped under named foremen. Two work-gangs are visible, headed by the overseers Ipšum and Alī-lī. Lists like this were the payroll and muster paperwork of the Akkadian state, showing how labor was organized into supervised crews; the mix of Akkadian names reflects the Semitic-speaking population of northern Babylonia.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

This is a crew list. Under foreman Ipšum: one man, Gurātum, son of Āya-pum; one man, Ilum-asû, son of Ilak-nuʾid. Under foreman Alī-lī: one man, Šu-Zababa, son of Igi-su; one man, Išmā-ilum, of Zināe; and one man, Ilum-tabba. The tablet breaks off after that, so we don't know how many more names followed or what the men were mustered for.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

Overseer: Ipšum. 1 (man): Gurātum, son of Āya-pum; [1 (man)]: Ilum-asû, son of Ilak-nuʾid. Overseer: Alī-lī. 1 (man): Šu-Zababa, son of Igi-su; [1 (man)]: Išmā-ilum, (son of?) [Zi]nāe; 1 (man): Ilum-tabba, [...] ... [...] (rest broken)

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.

Transliteration

ugula ip-szum
1(asz@c) gu-ra-tum
dumu# a2-a-pum
[1(asz@c)] dingir-a-zu
dumu# i3-la-ak-nu-id
ugula a-li2-li2
1(asz@c) szu-za-ba4-ba4
dumu igi-su4
[1(asz@c)] isz#-ma2-dingir
[zi]-na#-e
1(asz@c) dingir-tab#-ba#
[...] x [...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 033. 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 (P215358) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).

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