MVN 03, 072

About this tablet

This is a short Old Akkadian (Sargonic, about 2300–2150 BCE) administrative record of debts, now in the Free Library of Philadelphia. It lists the shortfalls of two men, Urni and Amar-abzu, who were each assessed a quota of ghee (clarified butter) and goats and did not deliver all of it. The scribe records what each still owes and notes that the debt stays on his account. Records like this show how early Mesopotamian institutions tracked unpaid obligations person by person.

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

Written in modern English

Urni still owes 16 measures of ghee and 8 goats of the sza3-du10 grade. This is the unpaid part of the quota he was assigned, and it remains charged to him. Amar-abzu still owes 3 measures of ghee and 8 goats of the same grade. This too is the unpaid part of his assigned quota, and it remains charged to him.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

Obverse/Reverse (no section markers given in the source): 1. 16 (units of) ghee, 2. 8 sza3-du10 goats: 3. (this) is of Urni. 4. It is the deficit of the assigned (goods); 5. it is outstanding against him. 6. 3 (units of) ghee, 7. 8 sza3-du10 goats: 8. (this) is of Amar-abzu. 9. Deficit 10. of the assigned (goods); 11. it is outstanding against him.

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 — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

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Transliteration

1(u) 6(asz@c) i3-nun
8(asz@c) masz2 sza3-du10
ur2-ni-kam
la2-ia3 nig2-pa-da-kam
an-da-la2
3(asz@c) i3-nun
8(asz@c) masz2 sza3-du10
amar-abzu-kam
la2-ia3
nig2-pa-da
an-da-la2

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MVN 03, 072. 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 (P215724) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).

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