AO 03416

~2270 BCE·Akkadian Empire·P491934

About this tablet

A short administrative ledger from Sargonic-period Mesopotamia, now in the Louvre, recording seed — or seeded ground — apportioned among eleven men. Each line gives a figure and the name of the man responsible for it: Iškur-kalama with much the largest share, then Ur-nigar, Ba-zizi, E-damu and the rest. The scribe closes with a grand total of 590 sar, which is exactly right: adding the eleven individual entries gives 590 to the unit. A single stray figure, 20, stands after the total, probably a late addition or a carry-over that the scribe jotted down separately.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

Seed allocation, by man: Iškur-kalama 210 sar; ARAD-e-PU3 60; Dingir-gani 20; Lu-banda 27 (written "30 less 3"); Ur-nigar 86; Ba-zizi 57 ("60 less 3"); Gi-gittum 30; E-damu 40; Puzur-Ea 30; Ur-dumu 30. Total: 590 sar of seed (written "600 less 10"). A further figure, 20, is entered below the total without explanation. The arithmetic balances exactly.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

1. 210 sar of seed: 2. Iškur-kalama; 3. 60: ARAD-e-PU3; 4. 20: Dingir-gani; 5. 30 less 3 (= 27): Lu-banda; 6. 86: Ur-nigar; 7. 60 less 3 (= 57): Ba-zizi; 8. 30: Gi-gittum; 9. 40: E-damu; 10. 30: Puzur-Ea; 11. 30: Ur-dumu. 12. Total: 600 less 10 (= 590) sar of seed. 13. 20.

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

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

3(gesz2@c) 3(u) sar numun
iszkur-kalam-ma
1(gesz2@c) ARAD-e-PU3
2(u) dingir-ga-ni
3(u) la2 3(disz) lu2-banda3
1(gesz2) 2(u) 6(disz) ur-nigar
1(gesz2) la2 3(disz) ba-zi-zi
3(u) gi-git2-tum
4(u) e2-da-mu
3(u) puzur4-e2-a
3(u) ur-dumu
szunigin 1(gesz'u) la2 1(u) sar numun
2(u)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — AO 03416. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P491934) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).

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