Position in chronology
MAD 5, 060
About this tablet
A small memorandum from the city of Kish in the Akkadian (Sargonic) period, around 2300 BCE, tracking the whereabouts of three dependents of one household head, Ilul-ilum. His slave-woman Temītum has been sent on assignment in Agade — the imperial capital of Sargon's dynasty, whose location is still undiscovered today — while two of his brothers are travelling to Kish. It is a glimpse of how people, including enslaved workers, moved between cities under the world's first empire, recorded in the Akkadian language rather than Sumerian.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a short note keeping tabs on three people. One woman, Temītum, a slave of Ilul-ilum and child of Enna-ilum, has been given her orders in the capital, Agade. Two men, Warassuni and Ersutum — brothers of Ilul-ilum — are both heading to Kish, and someone (presumably Ilul-ilum or an official) will give them their instructions. In effect: a travel and assignment memo for one household's personnel, filed by a scribe at Kish.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 1 (woman): Temītum, 2. slave-woman of Ilul-ilum (i-lu5-DINGIR), 3. child of Enna-ilum, 4. in Agade(?) 5. she has been commissioned (wuʾʾurat). 6. Warassuni (ARAD2-su2-ni) 7. and Ersutum, 8. 2 (men): brothers of Ilul-ilum — 9. both(?) of them (ki-lu-lu) to Kish 10. are going (out), 11. and he will instruct/inform(?) (them).
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
1(asz@c) te-mi-tum _geme2_ i-lu5-dingir _dumu#_ en-na-dingir in a-ga#?-de3#? wu-u2#-ra#?-at ARAD2-su2-ni u3 er3-su-tum 2(asz@c) _szesz_ i-lu5-dingir ki-lu-lu a-na kisz e3-la-ku u3-ha-za-za
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 060. 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 (P215383) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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