Position in chronology
MVN 03, 024
About this tablet
A small accounting tablet from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly the 23rd century BCE, recording quantities of barley issued to or held by six named individuals, plus barley set aside for making 'beer bread' — the baked mash cakes used to brew Mesopotamian beer — nine such loaves, and an amount of fish. The mix of Akkadian personal names (Ilī-aḫī, Amurrum) on a Sumerian-format account shows the bilingual bureaucracy of the Akkadian empire at work. It is the ordinary paperwork of provisioning a household or institution: grain, brewing supplies, and fish, each measured and assigned.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a supply ledger. Six people each receive a measured amount of barley: Urda-UR gets 3 barig (about 180 liters), Ilī-aḫī and Amurrum each get a full gur (about 300 liters), Ilī-ilī gets 2 barig, and Tammil and Warassuni each get 1 barig and 1 ban (about 70 liters). On top of that, one gur of barley is earmarked for beer bread — the brewing cakes from which beer was made — nine loaves of beer bread are counted, and the account closes with 2 barig of fish.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 3 barig of barley: Urda-UR, 2. 1 gur of barley: Ilī-aḫī, 3. 1 gur of barley: Amurrum, 4. 2 barig of barley: Ilī-ilī, 5. 1 barig 1 ban of barley: Tammil, 6. 1 barig 1 ban (of barley): Warassuni (ARAD₂-zuni), 7. 1 gur of barley: beer bread(?), 8. 9 (loaves of) beer bread, 9. 2 barig of fish.
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(barig@c) sze ur2#-da-UR 1(asz@c) sze gur i3-li2-a-hi 1(asz@c) sze gur a-mur-um 2(barig@c) sze i3-li2-li2 1(barig@c) 1(ban2@c) sze tam-mil 1(barig@c) 1(ban2@c) ARAD2-zu-ni 1(asz@c) sze gur bappir|SZIMx(ESZ2.GAR)|? 9(disz) bappir|SZIMxGAR| 2(barig@c) ku6
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MVN 03, 024. 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: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P215682) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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