Position in chronology
CUSAS 35, 459
About this tablet
A short receipt from the Old Akkadian period (about 2300–2150 BCE), probably from the city of Umma in southern Iraq. It records a small consignment of goods — jars, figs and bread, and a sack — sent by La'ani, the ruler of Subir (a region to the north, roughly Upper Mesopotamia), to the local governor. A soldier in the governor's service carried the delivery, and an official named Baragani signed for it. It is a rare, everyday glimpse of diplomatic gift-exchange between provincial rulers under the Akkadian empire.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Delivery note: some jars (quantity lost), a lot of figs and bread, and one sack of goods. La'ani, the governor of Subir, sent these to the governor here. Šu-Eštar, a soldier on the governor's staff, carried the shipment, and Baragani took receipt of it. Dated to the eleventh month of a year whose number is partly broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [n ...] jars, 2. [n ...] figs (and) bread, 3. 1 [...]-tukur-... sack — 4. La'ani, the governor of Subir (Subartu), 5. dispatched (these) to the governor; 6. Šu-Eštar, the gendarme of the governor, 7. brought (them); 8. Baragani 9. received (them). 10. [...] 2, year; 11, month(?) (i.e., [year n+]2, 11th month).
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
[n ...] dug# [n ... ]pesz3# nindax(DU) 1(asz@c) [x]-tukur2#-x a-ga2-la2 la-ni ensi2 su-birx(BAPPIR)-ra-ke4 ensi2-ra szu mu-na-us2 szu-esz18-dar aga3-us2 ensi2-ka-ke4 mu-de6 bara2-ga-ni szu ba-ti [n] 2(disz@t)# mu# 1(u) 1(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — CUSAS 35, 459. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P250915) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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