Position in chronology
OIP 092, 0050
About this tablet
An administrative receipt from the Persepolis Fortification archive, written in Elamite under the Achaemenid Persian kings around 500 BCE. It records the transfer of a large quantity of wine — 36 marriš, roughly 350 liters — from a supply official named Ušaya to Barrukka, a designated wine handler, for distribution as rations to state workers (kurtaš). Thousands of such tablets survive from Persepolis, and together they reveal the day-to-day provisioning machinery of the Persian Empire: named officials, accountable transfers, and rations for the labor force that built and ran the royal center.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Receipt: 36 marriš of wine (about 350 liters), issued from the stock managed by Ušaya. Received by Barrukka, the wine handler. He took delivery of it to serve as rations for the workers. In modern terms: a warehouse transfer slip — one official signs the wine out of inventory, a specialist courier takes charge of it, and the stated purpose is workforce rations.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine36 marriš (measures) of wine, supplied by (kurmin) Ušaya(na): Barrukka, the wine handler, received (it). He carried (it) off (as?) rations of (the) workers (kurtaš).
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
3(u) 6(disz) mar-ri-isz _gesztin-mesz_ kur-min2 u2-sza2-ia-na bar-ru-uk-ka4 _gesztin-mesz_ ku!-ti-ra du-isz um-pu-ra ku-iz kur-tasz gal-li
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — OIP 092, 0050. 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, P382736). 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.