Position in chronology
MVN 03, 107
About this tablet
A short legal record from the Sargonic (Old Akkadian) period, about 2300 BCE. Two men with the same court title, 'chair-bearer', have settled a dispute over a slave-woman belonging to a man named Bēlī-dan, and one of them swears by the king's name that the matter will not be reopened. Five witnesses are listed: a physician, a cupbearer who is also an overseer, a fuller (cloth-cleaner), and two donkey-herders who work for the same man. It shows ordinary people using a royal oath to make a private settlement binding.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
E-nam, a chair-bearer, swore an oath in the king's name before his fellow chair-bearer Ur-zu: neither of them will bring the dispute over Bēlī-dan's slave-woman back up again. The oath was made in front of five witnesses: Ur-ab the physician; Dada the cupbearer, who is also an overseer; E-uri the fuller; Lu-dingira, son of Lugal-da; and Šešše, son of Ursag. The last two both herd donkeys for Lugal-KA.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. E-nam, the chair-bearer, 2. with Ur-zu, the chair-bearer, 3. concerning the slave-woman of Bēlī-dan, 4. that they will not reverse (the matter), 5. swore by the king's name. 6. 1 (person): Ur-ab, the physician; 7. 1: Dada, the cupbearer, overseer; 8. 1: E-uri, 9. the fuller; 10. 1: Lu-dingira, 11. son of Lugal-da, shepherd of the donkeys of Lugal-KA; 12. 1: Šešše, 13. son of Ursag, shepherd of the donkeys of Lugal-KA: 14. they are the witnesses.
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
e2-nam gu-za-la2-e ur-zu gu-za-la2-da bar geme2 be-li2-dan-ka-ka la-ba-gi4-gi4-da-ke4-esz2 mu lugal i3-da-pa 1(asz@c) ur-ab a-zu 1(asz@c) da-da sagi ugula 1(asz@c) e2-uri3 azlag4 1(asz@c) lu2-dingir-ra dumu lugal-da sipa ansze lugal-KA 1(asz@c) szesz-szesz dumu ur-sag sipa ansze lugal-KA lu2-ki-inim-ma-me
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MVN 03, 107. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P215755) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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