Position in chronology
Adab 0815
About this tablet
A small legal tablet from Adab (modern Bismaya, southern Iraq) written during the Akkadian empire, roughly 2300–2200 BCE. It records a transaction over a slave woman valued at 15 shekels of silver, with a further payment of 10 shekels made by a man named Al-kalla, sealed by an oath sworn in the king's name and supervised by an official called Ĝissu. Three witnesses close the document, one of them a merchant, which is the standard way a private agreement was made enforceable in Sargonic Mesopotamia. The tablet is unusually complete: text runs across the obverse, both side edges, the bottom edge and onto the reverse.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One slave woman, valued at 15 shekels of silver: An-tum. Al-kalla paid an additional 10 shekels of silver and, under oath sworn in the king's name, the transfer was made over to him. Ĝissu acted as the supervising official for the transaction. A further shekel of silver, in bronze, was weighed out to him. Present as witnesses: Ur-nigar the merchant, Nin-mashe, and Nin-nam.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 female slave — 15 shekels of silver: An-tum. For 10 shekels of silver, Al-kalla, by the name of the king, … he transferred (it) to him. Ĝissu was the commissioner for it. 1 shekel of silver — bronze — he weighed out to him. 1: Ur-nigar, the merchant; 1: Nin-mashe; 1: Nin-nam — these are its witnesses.
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(asz@c) geme2 1(u) 5(disz) gin2 ku3-babbar an-tum3 1(u) gin2 ku3-babbar-sze3 al-kal-la mu lugal-gesz-sze3 gesz-a i3-na-ta-bala gissu maszkim-bi 1(asz@c) gin2 ku3-babbar zabar i3-na-la2 1(asz@c) ur-nigar# dam-gar3# 1(asz@c) nin-masz-e 1(asz@c) nin-nam lu2-ki-inim-ma-bi-me
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 0815. 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: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P217536) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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