MCS 9, 250

About this tablet

A small legal-administrative record from the Old Akkadian period (ca. 2300 BCE), now in the World Museum Liverpool. It lists single sheep owed by or assessed against named individuals — a merchant, a farmer, two women, and others — each entry supervised by a named bailiff (maškim), the official who enforced court decisions. The closing formula 'di til-la', 'case completed', marks this as the settled outcome of legal proceedings, a glimpse of how justice and livestock bookkeeping intertwined in early Mesopotamia.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

This is the final record of a settled court matter. Dada the merchant owes one sheep; Inim-Šara the farmer owes one sheep, with Nigar acting as the enforcing officer. Nin-gu owes one sheep, and so does another woman whose name is partly illegible, under the officer Nimgir-kiag. Nigar the merchant owes one sheep, with Lu-Šara as officer, and Ur-lu owes one sheep, again under Nigar. The file is stamped, in effect: case closed.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

1 sheep: Dada, the merchant; 1 sheep: Inim-Šara, the farmer — Nigar (was) the bailiff. 1 sheep: Nin-gu; 1 sheep: Nin-... — Nimgir-kiag (was) the bailiff. 1 sheep: Nigar, the merchant — Lu-Šara (was) the bailiff. 1 sheep: Ur-lu — Nigar (was) the bailiff. Case closed (di til-la).

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

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

1(asz@c) udu da-da dam-gar3
1(asz@c) udu inim-szara2 engar
nigar maszkim
1(asz@c) udu nin-gu2
1(asz@c) udu nin-x-x
nimgir-ki-ag2 maszkim
1(asz@c) udu nigar dam-gar3
lu2-szara2 maszkim
1(asz@c) udu ur-lu2
nigar maszkim
di til-la

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MCS 9, 250. 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 (P215521) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).

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