Position in chronology
MVN 03, 080
About this tablet
A short Old Akkadian grain account, from roughly the 23rd century BCE, of unknown findspot and now in the Free Library of Philadelphia. It records about seven and a half gur of barley in two lots. The first lot is tied to a silver price of 6 shekels and to a purchase involving three named men. The closing lines identify the grain as old (last season's) barley drawn from a granary, probably one associated with 'the elders.' It gives a rare glimpse of grain being valued and traded against silver in the world of the Akkadian empire.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
3 gur and 4 barig of barley were valued at 6 shekels of silver and set against a purchase involving Ilum-nāṣir, Eštar-qar(?) and Abu-su-IM(?). A second lot of 4 gur and 4 barig of barley follows, but the line naming its recipient or purpose is broken. All of this is old barley taken from the granary, apparently the one belonging to the elders.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 3 gur 4 barig of barley, 2. purchase (price): 6 shekels of silver, 3. for the purchase (from/by) Ilum-nāṣir, 4. Eštar-qar(?) (and) Abu-su-IM(?). 5. 4 gur 4 barig of barley, 6. [...]-x. 7. Old barley, that of the granary 8. of the elders(?). (End of supplied text)
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
3(asz@c)# 4(barig@c) _sze gur_ _sa10_ 6(asz@c) _gin2 ku3-babbar_ a-na _sa10_ 1(asz@c) dingir-na-s,i2-ir esz18-dar-qar a-bu3-su2-IM 4(asz@c) 4(barig@c) _sze gur_ [...]-x _sze libir_ szu _guru7_ szi#-bu-tim
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MVN 03, 080. 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 (P215732) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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