Position in chronology
Adab 0695
About this tablet
A letter-order from the city of Adab in the Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly 2300 BCE — the everyday paperwork of a command economy. It lists counted goods or personnel (9 of one kind, 27 of another, under the foreman Enlila) together with boats, and closes with the classic Sumerian messenger formula: 'speak to my master — let him hand them over to you.' Such notes functioned like signed requisition slips: the bearer presented the tablet, and the official named in it was obliged to release the goods. The middle of the text is broken, so the sender's name is lost.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a short requisition memo. It itemizes nine choice-grade items (or animals), twenty-seven šadu-items, all under the responsibility of the foreman Enlila, plus one cargo boat and one lead boat of some kind — the description of the second boat is damaged. After a break where the sender's name once stood, the message closes with the standard delivery order: 'This is what so-and-so says: tell my master that he should hand these over to you.' In effect: present this tablet, and the goods are to be released to the bearer.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine10 less 1 (= 9) nisqu (choice-quality ones), 30 less 3 (= 27) šadu, foreman: Enlila. 1 mašada-boat, [1] lead boat ... ... (Break) (This is) what [PN] says: to my master speak — let him give (them) to you!
Our translation engine — Fable 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
1(u) la2 1(disz@t) ni-is-qu2 3(u) la2 3(disz@t) sza3-du10 ugula en-lil2-la2 1(disz) ma2-sza3-da [1(disz)] ma2-sag# AN x [...] [na]-be2-a lugal#-mu u3-na-du11 ha-mu-ra-ab-szum2-mu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 0695. 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 (P217493) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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