Position in chronology
Adab 0885 + 1062
About this tablet
This is a short official letter from Adab (modern Bismaya, southern Iraq), written in Sumerian in the time of the Akkadian empire, about 2300–2150 BCE. An official named Lugal-gesz writes to Lugal-maszkim to report that his messenger has been killed and asks that the case be sent on somewhere else. It is a rare and striking glimpse of violent crime in the official post, and of the way officials passed such cases to others to deal with. The tablet is now two joined fragments held at the Oriental Institute in Chicago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
From Lugal-gesz to Lugal-maszkim: someone has killed my messenger. The next line, about how the matter should be handled, is partly broken. The case, or the killer, is to be sent on to [Ki-babbar]. The name of that place is lost on the tablet and has been filled in by modern scholars.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse [What] Lugal-gesz says, [say] to Lugal-maszkim: “My messenger — a man killed (him). That matter [...] let it be [...]; to [Ki-babbar], let him transfer (it/him).” (End of text; the reverse contains the closing lines, partly broken.)
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
lugal#-gesz-e na-be2-a lugal-maszkim-e [u3]-na-du11 lu2# kin-gi4#-[a]-mu# lu2# mu-gaz inim#-bi# [...] he2#-em-[...] [ki-babbar]-ra-sze3 he2-eb-bala-e
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 0885 + 1062. 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 (P217559) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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