Position in chronology
Adab 0650
About this tablet
A Sargonic-period court record from Adab (modern Bismaya, southern Iraq), roughly 2300–2200 BCE. A man named Lu-Enlila sued Ur-Enlila, a merchant, over ten shekels of silver; the case came before Lugal-geš, the city-governor of Adab, who ruled on it and had an oath sworn — probably in the temple of Ašgi, Adab's city god. A further shekel of silver appears at the end, likely a court fee or fine, and an official named Šu-i is recorded as the bailiff who enforced the verdict. It is a small tablet, but it shows a working municipal judiciary in one of Sumer's older cities, with named judges, named litigants, and written follow-up.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Lu-Enlila took Ur-Enlila, a merchant, to court over a debt of ten shekels of silver. Lugal-geš, the governor of Adab, heard Ur-Enlila's case, settled it, and had the required oath sworn. A further shekel of silver is then noted — the text here is damaged — along with a mention of the god Ašgi, and the officer Šu-i is listed as the bailiff responsible for the case. The remaining lines are broken and cannot be read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineLu-Enlil[la], Ur-Enlila the mer[chant] — he brought a lawsuit against him concerning 10 shekels of sil[ver]. Lugal-geš, governor of Adab, judged the case of Ur-Enlil[a] and set it right; he pronounced the oath(-prayer). 1 shekel of sil[ver ... ] [ ... ] Ašgi [ ... ] Šu-[i(?)] was the bailiff.
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
lu2-en-[lil2-la2-ke4] ur-en-lil2-la2 dam#-[gar3] di i3-da-du11 bar 1(u@c) gin2# ku3-[babbar] lugal-gesz# ensi2 adab-ba-[ke4] di ur-en-lil2-la2-[ke4] si bi2-[sa2] szud3 bi2-du11#? 1(asz@c) gin2 ku3-[babbar x x] []aszgi[ ...] szu-[i?] maszkim
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 0650. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P217474) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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