Position in chronology
MCS 9, 231
About this tablet
An administrative land record from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly the 23rd century BCE, now kept in the World Museum Liverpool. A scribe tallies very large tracts of farmland — close to a hundred bur, several hundred hectares in all — lying in three named rural districts, two of them the 'greater' and 'lesser' settlements of the same hamlet. The closing lines tie the fields to named individuals and label the whole as a 'delivery,' a snapshot of how the Akkadian state kept books on its agricultural estates.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Field register: 35 bur, 2 eše and 3½ iku of farmland in the district of Greater Edur-GAGa; 34 bur of farmland in the district of Lesser Edur-GAGa; and 30 bur of farmland in a third district whose name is partly broken, connected with (the goddess or temple of) Inanna. He holds these lands — or they are held by a man named Tukal — and the record is booked as a delivery under the name of Gališ-nuide. In modern terms: an official land-office entry logging several hundred hectares across three rural estates and the person accountable for them.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 35 bur, 2 eše, 3½ iku of field 2. in the irrigation district of Edur-GAGa the Greater; 3. 34 bur of field 4. in the irrigation district of Edur-GAGa the Lesser; 5. 30 bur of field 6. [in the district of ......] Inanna. 7. He holds (it) (/ Tukal). 8. Gališ-[nu]-ide: 9. delivery.
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
_3(bur'u@c)# 5(bur3@c) 2(esze3@c) 3(iku@c) 1/2(iku@c) GAN2_ in _agar4_ e-dur2-GAG-a-gal _3(bur'u@c) 4(bur3@c) GAN2_ in _agar4_ e-dur2-GAG-a-tur _3(bur'u@c) GAN2_ [...] inanna# tu#-ka3-al gal#-isz#-[nu]-id#-e# _mu#-kux(DU)#_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MCS 9, 231. 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: World Museum Liverpool, Liverpool, UK (P215502) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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