Position in chronology
OIP 092, 0041
About this tablet
An administrative receipt from the Persepolis Fortification Archive, written in Elamite by a clerk of the Persian imperial administration around 499 BCE, in the 23rd year of Darius I. It records the transport of a sizable consignment of wine — 43 marriš, roughly 400 liters — from a supply point called Maturban to Persepolis itself, under the responsibility of an official named Ziššukka. Thousands of such small clay dockets tracked the flow of food and drink through the heartland of the Achaemenid Empire, and together they form our best window into how the Persian state actually fed and paid its workforce.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Delivery note: 43 marriš of wine (about 400 liters) shipped from Maturban and brought in to Persepolis. Handled by Ziššukka, the wine official on duty. Filed in year 23 of the king's reign — that is, 499/498 BCE under Darius I. A one-line entry in the empire's running accounts, confirming that the wine left its point of origin and arrived at the capital's stores.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine43 marriš (measures) of wine, from Maturban, were carried to Parsa (Persepolis). Ziššukka the kuizza(-official) (handled/received it). 23rd year.
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
4(u@v) 3(disz) mar-ri-isz _gesztin-mesz_ ma-tur-ba!-an-mar ba!-ir-sza2-an ku-ut-ka4 zi2-isz-szu-uk-ka4 ku-iz-za be-ul 2(u) 3(disz)-um-me-man-na
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — OIP 092, 0041. 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, P382727). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
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.