Position in chronology
CST 013
About this tablet
This is a short farm record from Mesopotamia in the Old Akkadian period, around the 23rd century BCE. The place it was found is not known, and it is now in the John Rylands Library in Manchester. It notes that a small plot of about 1½ iku (roughly half a hectare) was sown in one day's work. It names Sipazi, the plow-leader, and a man called Mezu, who delivered the report or the seed. Tiny records like this let us watch the sowing season happen field by field under the Akkadian administration.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Sowing report: 1½ iku of land was seeded in one day's work, in the meadow-land of the field called Uru. The plow-leader in charge was Sipazi. Mezu delivered it. The tablet is dated to year 7, month 8.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 1½ iku of field: 2. seed placed (sown), 3. labour of 1 day, 4. (in) the meadow-land of the field Uru; 5. Sipazi, 6. the plow-leader. 7. Mezu 8. delivered (it). 9. Year 7, month(!) 8.
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. 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
1(iku@c) 1/2(iku@c) GAN2 numun ga2-ra a2 1(disz@t) u4 agar4 a-sza3 uru2 sipa-zi sag-apin-na me-zu mu-kux(DU) 7(disz@t) mu 8(disz@t) iti!(UD)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — CST 013. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK (P212938) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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