Position in chronology
HSS 10, 026
About this tablet
A field survey and assignment record from Gasur (the later Nuzi, in northern Iraq) during the Old Akkadian period, around 2300 BCE. A surveyor recorded the dimensions of two large plots — each about 45 hectares — noting that their sides ran even, and assigned each to a named holder, one bearing a Semitic name and the other likely an early Hurrian one. The final lines mark the land as tied to an institutional work obligation. Tablets like this show the Akkadian state's land administration reaching deep into the northern countryside.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a land survey docket for two big fields near the settlement of Maškan-tur. For the first plot the surveyor notes that the long sides run equal and the short sides measure 2½ rods plus a lost figure; the total comes to 7 bur₃ and 5 iku of land (roughly 47 hectares), registered to Bēla. The second plot has long sides of about 4½ rods' entry and short sides of 60-odd and a half rods, totalling 7 bur₃ (about 45 hectares), registered to Ḫuḫir. The closing lines note that this land is carried as an official work assignment and is held in pledge. The beginnings of several lines are broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [...] the long side(s) are equal, 2. [...] 2½ (rods), the short side(s) are equal, 3. [...] besides/set apart (bar-ra gal₂); 4. its field area: 7 bur₃ 5 iku of field (GAN₂) — 5. (the field) of Bēla (šu Be-la). 6. 4½(?) (rods), the long side(s) are equal, 7. 60 [+ ...] and ½ (rods), the short side(s) are equal; 8. its field [area]: 7 bur₃ of field (GAN₂) — 9. (the field of) Ḫuḫir, 10. in Maškan-tur. 11. (It is an) iškaru work-assignment, 12. held (as pledge) (šu du₈-a).
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
[...] _us2# i3-[sa2_] [...] 2(asz@c) 1/2(asz@c) _sag i3-[sa2_] [...] _bar-ra-gal2_ _a-sza3-bi_ 7(bur3@c) 5(iku@c) _GAN2_ szu be#-la 4(asz@c)#? 1/2(asz@c) _us2 i3-sa2_ 1(gesz2@c) [...] 1/2(asz@c) _sag i3-sa2_ _a-sza3-[bi_] 7(bur3@c) _GAN2_ hu-hi-ir in masz-kan2[]-tur _esz2-gar3_ _szu du8#-a#_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — HSS 10, 026. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P213292) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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