Position in chronology
MAD 5, 100
About this tablet
A small administrative memo from the Old Akkadian period (c. 2350–2200 BCE), recording the dispatch of goods — a couple of wooden bed-frames and some sheep — to the town of Mugdan, together with the personal names of those involved. Mugdan is the ancient name of the very site, modern Umm al-Jir in central Iraq, where tablets of this group were found, so the text names its own hometown. It is a rare glimpse of everyday furniture and livestock moving through a provincial Akkadian settlement.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two wooden beds (apparently of the 'turned' or rounded type) sent to Mugdan. Also an unspecified number of sheep, and more wooden beds of the same kind — this part of the record is damaged. A man named Ida-badar is listed in connection with the shipment, again destined for Mugdan, and the note closes with another name, Ub-ilum, presumably the recipient or responsible official. A terse delivery docket; several entries are broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 2 wooden beds(?), [tu]rned/rounded(?), 2. [to Mug]dan; 3. [...] sheep, 4. [... wooden] beds(?), rounded(?), 5. Ida-badar(?), 6. to Mugdan, 7. Ub-ilum.
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
2(asz@c) _gesz zi-nu2 [mu?]-nigin2#_ [a-na mug]-da#-an[] [...] _udu#_ [... _gesz] zi-nu2 mu#?-nigin2_ i-da-ba-dar? a-na mug-da-an ub-dingir
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 100. 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 (P215422) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.