Position in chronology
MVN 03, 038
About this tablet
This is a short barley account from Ešnunna, in the Diyala region east of modern Baghdad, written in the Old Akkadian period around 2300–2200 BCE. It lists amounts of grain against four men with Akkadian names. Most of the amounts are marked as 'surplus', which means extra barley beyond an expected quota. Records like this let the local administration keep track of harvests, deliveries or debts in barley, which was the main crop and a common unit of value.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Aḫu-ilum is down for 43 gur of barley by the large sag-gal₂ measure, and for another 7 gur, 2 barig and 3 ban₂. Bēlī-galzu is down for a surplus of 10 gur by the large measure, plus another 2 gur and 4 barig as surplus. Išma-ilum has a surplus of 17 gur and 2 ban₂. Bēlī-GI has a surplus of 12 gur. The account names no total, date or purpose.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 43 gur of barley, [by the] sag-gal₂ (gur measure); 2. 7 gur, 2 barig, 3 ban₂ of barley: 3. Aḫu-DINGIR (Aḫu-ilum). 4. 10 gur of barley, by the sag-gal₂ (gur measure), surplus; 5. 2 gur, 4 barig of barley, surplus: 6. Bēlī-galzu. 7. 17 gur, 2 ban₂ of barley, surplus: 8. Išma-DINGIR (Išma-ilum). 9. 12 gur of barley, surplus: 10. Bēlī-GI.
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
4(u@c)# 3(asz@c) sze# [gur] sag-gal2# 7(asz@c) 2(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) sze gur# a-hu-dingir 1(u@c) sze gur sag-gal2 diri 2(asz@c) 4(barig@c) sze gur diri be-li2-gal-zu 1(u@c) 7(asz@c) 2(ban2@c) sze gur diri isz-ma2-dingir 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) sze gur diri be-li2-gi
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MVN 03, 038. 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 (P222205) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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