Position in chronology
MAD 1, 282
About this tablet
A short private letter in Old Akkadian from Ešnunna (modern Tell Asmar, Iraq), from the era of the Akkadian empire, c. 2300–2200 BCE. The sender, Šu-Mama, reports a small silver transaction connected with a bride or daughter-in-law: a man named Erē'um took four shekels of silver and handed it over to a woman, Kabartum. Anticipating a dispute, Šu-Mama names a person who can be seated as formal witness if the addressee denies the matter — a vivid glimpse of how ordinary people secured petty financial dealings before notaries existed.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Message from Šu-Mama: regarding the daughter-in-law, Erē'um took four shekels of silver — weighed by the small mina standard — and paid it over to Kabartum. If you try to deny that this happened, then let Sirkum take his seat as witness to testify to it. In other words: the payment was made, there is someone who saw it, and any dispute can be settled formally.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. Thus (says) 2. Šu-Mama: 3. "For the daughter-in-law (é-gi₄-a) 4. 4 shekels of silver by the small mina 5. Erē'um 6. took, and 7. to Kabartum 8. he gave (it). 9. If indeed 10. you deny (it), 11. let Sirkum 12. [a]s witness (in the eldership) 13. [si]t."
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
en-ma szu-ma-ma a-na _e2-gi4-a_ 4(asz@c) _gin2 ma-na tur ku3-babbar_ er3-e-um il2-qi3-ma a-na ka3-bar-tim i-di3-in szum-ma-ma? ta2-na-kir si#-ir-kum [a]-na#? _abba2_-bu-tim [li]-szi4-ib
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 1, 282. 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 (P215111) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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