Position in chronology
MVN 03, 071
About this tablet
This is a short Old Akkadian administrative account, about 2300–2150 BCE, for a date harvest from a single orchard. It records the total yield of an orchard belonging to a man called Lugal-ma-DU, checked by an official named Lu-gula. It then shows where the dates went: one man issued a large share, and other portions seem to have been converted into silver. The last entries are damaged, but the tablet gives a glimpse of how date palm groves were inventoried and how their produce was distributed and sold.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Lugal-ma-DU's orchard produced about 18 and a half gur of dates, and Lu-gula has checked the figure. Of that total, Ur-Enlil issued 11 gur, and the amount he spent is included in that figure. Another quantity of dates, whose amount is lost, went to Lu-gula in exchange for a number of shekels of silver. The next lines are badly broken. They mention further quantities in gur, another amount that was measured out, and more dates. The last legible entry concerns dates that were deposited in some way that cannot be made out, and the account ends with Lu-gula's name.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 18 gur 1 barig 3 ban of dates (written: 20 minus 2 gur, 1 barig, 3 ban), 2. the orchard of Lugal-ma-DU; 3. Lu-gula has counted (it) up. 4. From this: 5. 11 gur of dates 6. Ur-Enlil measured out, 7. and his expenditures are counted in it. 8. [n] gur of dates 9. for [n] shekels (of silver): Lu-gula; 10. [......]-da?-gal 11. [......] x gur 12. [......] measured out; 13. [......] x gur of dates 14. dates ... šu-a-la x [(x)] placed; 15. Lu-gula. (End of the supplied transliteration)
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. 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(u@c) la2 2(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 3(ban2) zu2-lum gur kiri6 lugal-ma-DU lu2-gu-la an-na-szid sza3-bi-ta 1(u@c) 1(asz@c) zu2-lum gur ur3 en-lil2 mu-ag2 u3 nig2 zi-ga-ni sza3-ba a-szid [n] zu2-lum gur [n] gin2-sze3 lu2-gu-la [...]-da#?-gal2 [...] x gur [...]-ag2# [...] x zu2-lum gur zu2#-lum szu12-a-la2 x [(x)] gar lu2-gu-la
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MVN 03, 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: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P215723) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (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.