Position in chronology
MVN 03, 078
About this tablet
A short wool-allocation record from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, around 2300–2200 BCE, now in the Free Library of Philadelphia; where it was written is not known. It notes how wool from a household or estate store was divided: one portion for the rations of dependent workers, 40 minas assigned to a woman called Rubātum (or possibly to 'the queen/lady'), and 39 minas for weaving a type of garment called guzi, under a man named Isarum. Records like this show the textile economy behind the early Mesopotamian states, where wool was rationed as payment and also passed on as raw material for cloth.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Wool distribution: 7 kaš(?) and 13 minas of wool go to the servants as their rations. Forty minas of wool are listed under Rubātum. Another 39 minas are set aside for making guzi-garments, under Isarum's name.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse(?) 1. 7 kaš(?) (and) 13 minas of wool 2. for the rations of the servants; 3. 40 minas of wool: 4. Rubātum; 5. 40 minus 1 (= 39) minas 6. for guzi-garments: 7. Isarum.
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
7(asz@c) _kasz_ 1(u@c) 3(asz@c)# _ma-na siki_ a-na _sze-ba ARAD2_ 4(u@c) _ma-na siki_ ru-ba-tum 4(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) _ma-na_ a-na _tug2# gu-zi-a-tim_ i#-sa-ru-um
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MVN 03, 078. 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 (P215730) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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