Position in chronology
MVN 03, 031
About this tablet
A small Sargonic-period (Old Akkadian, c. 2300 BCE) account from southern Mesopotamia listing jars of dida, a malt-based beer product, assigned to three people: Šuna, Nigar and Urzu. The jars add up to 45, and the closing note says they are in the keeping of an official named Lugal-anne. It is routine brewery or storehouse bookkeeping that records who has custody of a common foodstuff. The tablet is now in the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Dida-beer, by the jar: Šuna has 25 jars, Nigar has 10 and Urzu has 10. That makes 45 jars in all, and they are currently in Lugal-anne's keeping.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse/Reverse (no section markers in source): 1. 25 jars of dida-beer: 2. Šuna. 3. 10 jars of dida-beer: 4. Nigar. 5. 10 jars of dida-beer: 6. Urzu. 7. Total: 45 jars of dida-beer; 8. with Lugal-anne 9. they are (held).
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
2(u) 5(asz@c) kasz dida dug szu-na 1(u@c) kasz dida dug nigar 1(u@c) kasz dida dug ur-zu szunigin 4(u) 5(asz@c) kasz dida dug lugal-an-ne2 i3-da-gal2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MVN 03, 031. 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 (P215687) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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