Position in chronology
OIP 092, 0055
About this tablet
A small Elamite administrative memorandum from the fortification archive at Persepolis, the bureaucratic heart of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. It records a quantity of wheat (the number is broken away) drawn from stores under the responsibility of an official named Kinimur and received by a man with the Iranian name Bakaduišda, in the 23rd regnal year — almost certainly of Darius I, i.e. 499/498 BCE. Tens of thousands of such receipts survive; together they reveal the day-to-day rationing and supply system that fed workers, travelers, and officials across the Persian heartland.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a wheat receipt. An unknown quantity of wheat — the number at the start is broken off — was taken out of the supply that the official Kinimur was responsible for, and a man named Bakaduišda took delivery of it. The clerk dated the transaction to year 23 of the reigning king, most likely Darius I, which puts it around 499 BCE. One line describes where or from whom the wheat was drawn, but the wording there is too obscure to render with certainty.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Obverse) [n (measures of)] wheat: from the rappišbe(?)-... (rap-pi-iš-be-na-mar-ri), liddu(?), it was withdrawn/carried off (kutka). Bakaduišda received (it) — received (duišdal). Entrusted by (kurmin) Kinimur. Of the 23rd 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
[n(disz)] _sze-gig!-mesz_ rap2-pi-isz-be-na-mar-ri li-ud-du ku-ut-ka4 ba-ka4-du-isz-da! du-isz-dal kur-min2 ki-ni-mu-ur-na be-ul 2(u) 3(disz)-um-me-na#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — OIP 092, 0055. 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, P382741). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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