Position in chronology
MAD 5, 071
About this tablet
A small delivery record from the Akkadian (Sargonic) period, around 2300 BCE, probably from the site now called Umm al-Jir in central Iraq. Three men each brought in a consignment of first-quality barley, and a clerk noted the amounts against their names. One deliverer is explicitly labelled an Amorite — a valuably early mention of this western people, who centuries later would found dynasties across Mesopotamia, here appearing simply as a man handing over grain.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Grain intake log, three entries. Ela-ilum, the Amorite, delivered a quantity of first-quality barley — the exact figure is broken off the tablet. Kuru-AN(?), son of Dirium, delivered 20 measures of first-quality barley. Sadutu delivered 10 measures of first-quality barley; his entry carries the clerk's check mark confirming receipt. Each line ends with the same verb: 'he brought it in.'
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [n (measures of) first-quality barley:] 2. Ela-ilum, 3. the Amorite, 4. brought (here). 5. 20 (measures of) first-quality barley: 6. [Ku?]ru-AN, [son of] Dirium, 7. brought (here). 8. 10 (measures of) first-quality barley: 9. Sadutu 10. — checked (PAP-PAP) — 11. brought (here).
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
[n _sze sag_] e-la-dingir _mar-tu_ ub-lam 2(u@c) _sze sag_ [ku?]-ru#-AN [_dumu_] diri-um ub-lam 1(u@c) _sze sag_ sa-du2-tu PAP-PAP ub-lam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 071. 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 (P215394) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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