Position in chronology
CUSAS 20, 037
About this tablet
This is a short business letter from the town of Adab in southern Iraq, written in Sumerian in the Old Akkadian period around 2300 BCE. It comes from a man named Adda and is addressed to Ur-Lulu. It begins with a small list of goods: flax, garlic, peas and cumin, some of them already in stock and some sent on. It ends with a brief request about a man named Lu-gid. Letters this early are rare. Here the goods list comes before the usual 'Say to X: Y says' greeting, which gives a glimpse of how administrators in the time of Sargon's dynasty managed small household supplies.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Seven minas of flax and two baskets of garlic are here in stock. Adda has sent Ur-Lulu three measures of small peas and one measure of cumin. Then the letter proper: 'To Ur-Lulu, from Adda: please send Lu-gid back.'
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse(?) 1. 7 minas of flax (fibre), 2. 2 gurdub-baskets of SUMASZ@g garlic — 3. (these) are on hand. 4. 3 ban of small peas(?), 5. 1 ban of cumin: 6. to Ur-Lulu 7. Adda 8. has sent (them). 9. To Ur-Lulu 10. speak: 11. Adda 12. says: 13. "Lu-gid 14. let him send back!"
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
7(asz@c) gu ma-na 2(asz@c) gurdub2 SUMASZ@g szum2 i3-gal2 3(ban2@c) gu2-gu2 tur-tur 1(ban2@c) gamun ur-lu-lu-ra ad-da szu i3-na-us2 ur-lu-lu-ra u3-na-du11 ad-da na-be2-a lu2-gid2 ha-mu-gi4
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — CUSAS 20, 037. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA (P273792) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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