Position in chronology
OIP 092, 0032
About this tablet
A small administrative receipt from the Persepolis Fortification Archive, the vast filing system of the Persian Empire's heartland administration, written in Elamite around 498 BCE — the 24th year of Darius I. It records that a supply officer named Bagizzana had 104 measures of flour deposited into storage at Persepolis itself. Thousands of such laconic dockets survive; together they reveal the day-to-day food economy that fed the workers, officials, and travelers of the Achaemenid capital.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Receipt: 104 measures of flour, provided under the responsibility of Bagizzana, have been deposited into the stores at Persepolis. The transaction was processed the same way as the previous entry ('ditto'). Filed in year 24 of the king's reign — that is, about 498 BCE under Darius I. Nothing more is written; this is the complete text of a routine storage docket.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) 104 (BAR measures of) flour, supplied by (kurmin) Bagizzana, was deposited (kutka) at Persepolis (Baršan); it was done (as) ditto (hu-ut-KI.MIN-na, i.e. handled the same way as in the preceding record). (reverse/final line) Year 24 (of the king).
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(disz) me_ 4(disz@v) _zi3-da-mesz_ kur-min2# ba-gi-[iz]-za-na# ba-ir-sza2#-an# ku#-ut#-ka4# hu-ut-_ki-min_-na be-ul 2(u) 4(disz@v)-um-me-man-na
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — OIP 092, 0032. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: OIM L— (PFAP, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA) — from Pārśa (mod. Persepolis) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P382718). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.