Position in chronology
MVN 03, 083
About this tablet
This is a short barley account from Girsu in southern Iraq, written in the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, around 2300–2200 BCE. It lists amounts of barley, measured in gur (a large unit of grain), against six named people, then gives a total of 38 gur. The broken word after the total is probably a term for a loan, so the tablet may record barley lent out, with the last line naming the official or household responsible. It is typical of the paperwork that kept the grain economy of a Sumerian city running under Akkadian rule.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records barley owed by several people. The first person, whose name is mostly broken, has 20 gur. A partly named person has 6 gur, Ilal-[...] has 6 gur, Dingir-kugal has 4 gur and Išmagi has 2 gur. The total comes to 38 gur of barley. The next word is damaged but probably describes the grain as a loan. The final line names the person responsible for the account, but the name is broken off.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse(?) 1. 20 (gur) barley: x-[...] 2. [...]-ru-[...]; 3. 6 gur barley: DIN-A-x-[...]; 4. 6 gur barley: Ilal-[...]; 5. 4 gur barley: Dingir-kugal; 6. 2 gur barley: Išmagi. 7. Total: 38 gur barley, 8. hubu[...] (loan?), 9. of Warad-[...] / of the servant [...].
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@c) _sze#_ x-[...] [...]-ru-[...] 6(asz@c) _sze gur_ DIN A x-[...] 6(asz@c) _sze gur_ i-lal3 [...] 4(asz@c) _sze gur_ dingir-ku3-gal2 2(asz@c) _sze gur_ isz-ma2-gi szunigin 3(u@c) 8(asz@c) _sze gur_ hu-bu-[...] szu _ARAD2_ [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MVN 03, 083. 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 (P215735) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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Related sources
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