Position in chronology
MAD 4, 162
About this tablet
A Sargonic-period record from Umma, in southern Iraq, from around the 23rd century BCE, when the city was part of the empire of Akkad. It lists linen cloths of a particular type, the bar-si, contributed under the names of six men and then sent to Agade, the imperial capital. It shows a provincial city's textile production feeding the court at Akkad. The closing note of '4 years and 11 months' suggests the account covers deliveries over a long period, or totals obligations for that span.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Bar-si linens: Lugal-nigdu supplied 3, Ur-dam 3, Ur-saga 3, Ursag 2, E-zi 7 and Ur-ša 3. The tablet gives the total as 20 bar-si linens, although the individual entries add up to 21. The linens were taken to Agade, the capital. The account covers a period of 4 years and 11 months.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse/Reverse (no section markers in source): 1. 3 bar-si linens: 2. Lugal-nigdu; 3. 3: Ur-dam; 4. 3: Ur-saga; 5. 2: Ursag; 6. 7: E-zi; 7. 3: Ur-ša. 8. Total: 20 bar-si linens. 9. To Agade 10. they were brought. 11. 4 years (and) 11 months.
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
3(asz@c) gada bar-si lugal-nig2-du7 3(asz@c) ur-dam 3(asz@c) ur-sa6-ga 2(asz@c) ur-sag 7(asz@c) e2-zi 3(asz@c) ur4-sza3 szunigin 2(u) gada bar-si a-ga-de3 ba-de6 4(disz@t) mu 1(u) 1(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 162. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215322) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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