Position in chronology
MAD 5, 064
About this tablet
A fragmentary accounting tablet from the city of Kish in central Mesopotamia, written during the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE). It lists quantities of barley — each marked as 'available stock' or principal on hand — against the names of individual men, among them Emi-Suen, Šitimzu, and Sumu-ilum. It is a routine ledger of grain holdings or allocations, the kind of everyday bookkeeping that kept the Akkadian economy running.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a barley ledger, entry by entry: a now-lost amount of barley on hand credited to E-mi-Suen; 8 gur and 2 barig (roughly two and a half thousand liters) on hand for Šitimzu; about 3 gur and 1 barig, plus a lost amount, for a man whose name begins Ni-...; 7 gur and 2 barig for Sumu-ilum; and at least 4 gur for someone whose name is broken away. The top of the tablet and parts of several figures are damaged, so some names and quantities are lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [...]-ti 2. [n gur] of barley, principal on hand, 3. (for) E-mi-Suen; 4. 8 gur 2 barig of barley, principal on hand, 5. (for) Ši-tim-zu; 6. [...] 3(?) gur 1 barig [+ n gur of barley, principal on hand], 7. (for) Ni-[...]; 8. 7 gur 2 barig(?) [gur of barley], principal on hand, 9. (for) Sumu-ilum; 10. 4(?) gur [+ n gur of barley, principal on hand] (remainder of the entry broken)
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
[...]-ti [n gur] sze sag:gal2 e3-mi-suen 8(asz@c) 2(barig@c) gur sze sag:gal2 szi-tim-zu [...] 3(asz@c)#? 1(barig@c) [n gur sze sag:gal2] ni-[...] 7(asz@c) 2(barig@c)#? [gur sze] sag#:gal2 su-mu-dingir# 4(asz@c)#? [n gur sze sag:gal2]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 064. 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 (P215387) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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