Position in chronology
OIP 092, 0053
About this tablet
A small administrative memorandum in Elamite from the Persepolis Fortification archive, the working files of the Persian imperial administration under Darius I. It records the delivery of a modest quantity of a foodstuff called 'pit' — supplied by an official named Šutena and deposited at Persepolis itself — and names the men who took receipt of it, dated to the king's 21st year (about 501 BCE). Thousands of such receipts survive, and together they reveal the day-to-day supply economy that fed the workers, officials, and travelers of the Achaemenid heartland.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Receipt: two units of pit (a food commodity) were delivered to the storehouse at Persepolis. The goods came through Šutena, the supplying official. Bakabadda and Nababa, doing the same work as noted in the previous record, took delivery. Filed in year 21 of the king's reign — roughly 501 BCE.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(obverse) 2 (measures of) pit(-fruit), supplied by (kurmin) Šutena, was deposited (kutka) at Persepolis (Baršan). The hut-ditto(-workers?) — Bakabadda (and) Nababa received (it). 21st 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(disz) pi-ut kur-min2 szu-te-na-na ba-ir-sza2-an ku-ut-ka4 hu-ut-_ki-min_-na ba-ka4-ba-ad-da na-ba-ba du-isz-da be-ul 2(u) 1(disz)-na
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — OIP 092, 0053. 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, P382739). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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