MRAH O.5075

About this tablet

A small administrative receipt from the Old Akkadian period (around 2300–2200 BCE), recording the everyday movement of flour. Two men each deliver a measured quantity of fine flour — one to the temple of the underworld god Nergal, the other to an orchard — and the clerk books both as expenditures charged to the account of a man with the Akkadian name Išarrum. It is a glimpse of routine temple and estate provisioning: a few dozen liters of flour, tracked to the month, in the mixed Sumerian-Akkadian world of Sargonic Mesopotamia.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

Ur-ega delivered two ban (about 20 liters) of fine flour to the temple of Nergal. En-edine delivered one ban (about 10 liters) of the same fine flour to the shade-garden, that is, the orchard. Both amounts are booked as flour paid out, charged to the account of Išarrum. Dated to the month of 'orchard-goods' (Nig-kiri).

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

1. 2 ban of fine (sig₁₅-)flour — 2. Ur-ega 3. (to) the temple of Nergal 4. delivered; 5. 1 ban of fine (sig₁₅-)flour — 6. En-edine 7. to the shade-garden (orchard) 8. delivered. 9. Flour expended (booked expenditure); 10. it is (the account) of Išarrum. 11. Month: Nig-kiri ('orchard-goods').

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

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(ban2@c) zi3-sig15-ga
ur-e-ga-ke4
e2 nergal
in-kux(DU)
1(ban2@c) zi3-sig15-ga
en-edin-ne2
kiri6 gissu-sze3
in-kux(DU)
zi3 zi-ga
i-szar-ru-um-kam
itix(|UD@sxBAD|) nig2-kiri6

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MRAH O.5075. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels, Belgium (P453024) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).

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