Position in chronology
MVN 03, 033
About this tablet
A short Sargonic-period account (around 2300–2150 BCE) recording an issue of dates, Mesopotamia's main sweetener and a staple food. The scribe lists several lots: a large bulk quantity of ordinary dates, then smaller lots marked as good quality or by special descriptions that probably name varieties or how they were stored. The tablet ends by naming the person, apparently Eabi, who measured them out. It is ordinary paperwork from an unknown site, and it shows that dates were graded and accounted for with care.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Dates measured out: 17 gur of ordinary dates, 1 gur of good-quality dates, and another gur of good-quality dates of the 'white wood' kind. There are also 3 barig of dates described as 'DUG', perhaps meaning stored in jars, and 4 ban of a lot labelled 'gipar' (the reading is uncertain). Eabi measured all of it out.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 17 gur of dates; 2. 1 gur of good-quality dates; 3. 1 [gur] of good-quality dates, of 'white wood' (variety?); 4. 3 barig of dates, DUG; 5. 4 ban of giparx(KISAL)(?) (dates?); 6. Eabi 7. measured (them) out.
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
2(u) la2 3(disz@t) zu2-lum gur 1(asz) zu2-lum gur sig15-ga 1(asz) zu2-lum sig15-ga gesz babbar2 3(barig) zu2-lum DUG 4(ban2) giparx(KISAL)? e2-a-bi2 i3-ag2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MVN 03, 033. 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 (P215689) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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