Position in chronology
MAD 1, 195
About this tablet
A real-estate account from Ešnunna in the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE), recording three purchases of farmland of very different sizes, each with its price in silver and the name of the person involved. The scribe then adds everything up: a grand total of land and a grand total of silver. It is a window into a functioning private land market more than four thousand years ago, where even tiny fractions of a shekel were tracked to the last 'small mina'.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet itemizes three land deals. First, a field of about 15 iku went for 16 shekels and 2 small minas of silver, in the name of Dingir-kal. Second, a 6-iku field cost 6 shekels and 2 small minas of silver, under Ilī-aḫī. Third, a small plot of 80 sar went for just under a shekel — one shekel less a third of a small mina — under UD-kum. The bottom line: 22 iku of field less 20 sar in all, for a total of one-third of a mina, 3 shekels, and two-thirds of a small mina of silver. A final, mostly broken line preserved only part of another name.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 2(eše) 3(iku) of field (GAN₂), its price: 16 shekels (and) 2 small minas of silver — Dingir-kal (Ilum-dān). 1(eše) of field, its price: 6 shekels (and) 2 small minas of silver — [I]lī-aḫī. 80 sar (1 géš 20 sar of field), its price: 1 shekel of silver less 1/3 (of a) small (mina) — UD-kum. Total: 1(bur₃) 4(iku) of field less [20 sar]. Total: 1/3 (mina) [3] shekels (and) 2/3 (of a) small (mina of silver). [...]-ir-[...]
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
2(esze3)# 3(iku@c) _GAN2_ _sa10_-su _ku3-babbar 1(u@c) 6(asz@c) gin2 2(asz@c) ma-na tur_ dingir-kal 1(esze3) _GAN2_ _sa10_-su _ku3-babbar 6(asz@c) gin2 2(asz@c)# ma-na tur_ [i3]-li2-a-hi 1(gesz2@c)# 2(u@c) _sar_ _sa10_-su _ku3-babbar 1(asz@c) gin2 la2 1/3(asz@c) tur_ UD-kum# _szunigin 1(bur3@c) 4(iku@c) GAN2# la2# [2(u@c) sar_] _szunigin# 1/3(asz@c) [3(asz@c)] gin2# 2/3(asz@c)# tur_ [...]-ir-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 1, 195. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P215097) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
An early surviving historical monument that joins named rulers, a territorial dispute and religious oaths. It shows how a city-state turned victory into a lasting public claim, without establishing that this was the first recorded conflict.
Among the oldest surviving written law collections. It provides an early witness to royal justice and specified compensation, rather than a starting date for law itself.
A major surviving ancient law collection, carved on a basalt stela over two meters tall. Royal authority and legal decisions become a monument; this is not a code in the modern sense.