Position in chronology
MAD 5, 075
About this tablet
A short business letter from the Old Akkadian period (ca. 2300–2150 BCE), possibly from the site of Umm al-Jir in central Mesopotamia. A man named Zuzu writes to Pususu with a simple instruction: collect a small amount of bronze — about three shekels, roughly 25 grams — from a third man, Šu-ilišu, and pass it on to someone whose name is now broken away. Letters like this are among the earliest in the world, and they show everyday metal payments already moving between private individuals through written orders.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Message from Zuzu to Pususu: He is to collect three shekels of bronze (the quantity is slightly damaged, and whatever preceded it is lost) from Šu-ilišu, and then hand it over to a recipient whose name is broken off the tablet. In short: pick up a small bronze payment from one man and deliver it to another.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [Th]us (says) 2. [Zu]zu: 3. to Pususu — 4. from 5. [Šu]-ilišu 6. [...] 3(?) shekels of bronze 7. let him take, 8. [and to ...] 9. let him give (it).
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 [zu]-zu a#-na pu3-su-su isz#-te4 [szu]-i3#-li2-su [...] 3(asz@c)#? _gin2# zabar#_ li-il-qa2 [a-na ...] li#-di3-in
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 5, 075. 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: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P215398) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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