Position in chronology
OIP 092, 0052
About this tablet
An administrative wine account from the Persepolis Fortification archive, written in Elamite by a clerk of the Achaemenid Persian court, most likely in the 22nd year of Darius I (500/499 BCE). It records a very large quantity of wine — measured in marriš, a unit of roughly ten quarts — moved from one storage point and received by named officials. Thousands of such tablets survive from Persepolis, and together they reveal the day-to-day supply system that fed and provisioned the workforce of the Persian Empire's ceremonial heart.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Inventory note: 2,006 marriš of wine (roughly 20,000 liters) transferred out of the depot at Maturbana. Uzikraš handled the transport, and the transaction was processed at the same station. Miššabadda took receipt of the shipment at Baduišduiš, with Kuizza and Mannaraziyara involved as the responsible officials. Filed in year 22 of the king's reign — about 500 BCE. Several of the names and one or two words in the middle of the receipt are hard to make out, but the quantity, the commodity, and the year are clear.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2,006 (lit. twenty hundred six) marriš of wine, from (the place) Maturbana(?): Uzikraš held/carried (it); it was handled at the same (place, ditto). Miššabadda(?) received (it); (at) Baduišduiš(?); Kuizza(?) (and/of) Mannaraziyara. Year 22 (lit. of the 22nd year).
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
2(u) _me_ 6(disz) mar-ri-isz _gesztin-mesz_ ma-tur-ba!-na-mar u2-zi2-ik-rasz2 ku-ut-ka4 hu-ud-du-_ki-min_-ma mi-isz-sza2-ba!-ad-da du#-sza2 ba#?-du#-isz#-du#?-isz#? ku-iz-za ma-an-na-ra-zi2-ia-ra be-ul 2(u) 2(disz)-um-me-man-na
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — OIP 092, 0052. 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, P382738). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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