Position in chronology
MAD 4, 166
About this tablet
A small field-survey record from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, about 2300–2150 BCE. A scribe measured an irregular four-sided plot, with one side running along a canal, and wrote down the area and the man responsible for it: Ka'a, a leatherworker. Craftsmen in Akkadian Mesopotamia were often paid with the use of plots of land, so this tablet may document a leatherworker's holding of worked land. Its findspot is unknown, and it is now in the Louvre.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Field measurements: one long side is 63½ rods, and the short side along the canal is 22½ rods. The opposite long side, at the lower edge, is 90 rods, and the other short side, toward the a-gar-ra edge, is also 22½ rods. The plot comes to 2 eše and ½ plus 1/8 iku of harrowed land. It is assigned to Ka'a the leatherworker.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 63½ nindan: the length (us2); 2. 22½ nindan: the width (sag) along the canal; 3. 90 (nindan): the lower length; 4. 22½ (nindan): the width at the a-gar-ra side; 5. 2 eše ½ 1/8 iku of field, harrowed (ur3-ra): 6. Ka'a, the leatherworker.
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
1(gesz2) 3(disz) 1/2(asz@c) nindax(DU) us2 2(u) 2(disz) 1/2(asz@c) sag i7-da 1(gesz2) 3(u) us2 sig-ta 2(u) 2(disz) 1/2(asz@c) sag a gar-ra 2(esze3@c) 1/2(iku@c) 1/8(iku@c) GAN2 ur3-ra ka5-a aszgab
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MAD 4, 166. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P215326) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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