Position in chronology
CUSAS 27, 072
About this tablet
A private letter in Old Akkadian, from the age of the Sargonic empire (roughly 2300–2150 BCE), now in the Schøyen Collection. A man whose name honors the god Dagan writes about an earlier message to one Kal-ilē that apparently went unanswered or unfulfilled. Despite the breaks, the shape of the letter is clear: a complaint that something was not delivered, followed by urgent instructions — someone should be sent, people should arrive, and above all the correspondent must write back with a full report. It is a vivid reminder that long-distance nagging by mail is over four thousand years old.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Message from Dagan-...dali...: I already wrote to Kal-ilē, but they still haven't come through for me. The next couple of lines are too damaged to read. When the text resumes, the writer is issuing instructions: have him send it here to me; let Ga-...-šarrum(?) and the others get here. Then, after another broken passage: whatever the situation is — the whole matter, everything — even if there's no document to send(?), get word back to me. In short: I wrote once, nothing happened, now report to me immediately.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. Thus (says) 2. Dagan-[...]-dali-[...]: 3. To Kal-ilē 4. I wrote, but 5. they have not ...ed(?) to me 6. [......] 7. [......] 8. ... [...] let him send here to me; 9. may Ga-[...]-šarrum(?) 10. reach me here. 11. With(?) [...] ... [...] 12. The matter, and whatever (there is) — 13. (even if) there is no tablet(?), send (word) here to me.
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
en-ma da-gan-[x]-da-li-[x] a-na kal-i3-le asz2-pu3-ra-ku-ma u3-la ra#-ti#-u3-a [...] [...] x [...] li#-se11-ri2-am ga-[x]-lugal li-ik#-su-tu-nim it [...] da x a2-wa#-dam u3 [mim]-ma _dub_ la-szu4 su#-bi2-lam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — CUSAS 27, 072. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway (P254037) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.
Part of the earliest known body of international diplomatic correspondence. Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay, was the lingua franca of Late Bronze Age statecraft — used between Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levantine vassals.