Position in chronology
NM 44.0017
About this tablet
A short Sargonic-period account from the age of the Akkadian empire (around 2300–2150 BCE). Its findspot is unknown, and it is now in the Nicholson Museum in Sydney. It lists food staples and a few higher-value goods set aside for two named people, Wadarum and Dumu-mešar. These include barley measured by the official 'Agade' standard of the imperial capital, several grades of flour, groats, aromatics, oil and a shekel of silver. Records like this show the imperial measuring system reaching the ordinary paperwork of rations and provisions.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Wadarum is allotted one gur and three barig of barley, measured by the Agade standard, plus one ban of emmer flour and one ban of groats. Dumu-mešar gets an entry of barley whose amount and description are partly lost. He also gets one gur of barley, two barig of coarse barley flour and another ban of that flour (with a qualifier we can't pin down), plus a measure of aromatics, one shekel of silver and one sila of oil. The tablet doesn't say what the goods were for.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 gur 3 barig of barley, (by the measure of) Agade; 1 ban of imgaga (emmer) flour; 1 ban of groats; (for) Wadarum. x (units) of barley [......]; (for) Dumu-mešar: 1 gur of barley, 2 barig of dabin-flour, 1 ban of dabin-flour, sa (quality/processing uncertain), 1 (unit) of aromatics, 1 shekel of silver, 1 sila of oil.
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
1(asz@c) 3(barig@c) sze gur a-ga-de3 1(ban2@c) zi3 imgaga3 1(ban2@c) nig2-ar3-ra wa-da-ru-um x sze [x x] dumu-me-szar 1(asz@c) sze gur 2(barig@c) dabin 1(ban2@c) dabin sa 1(asz@c) szim 1(asz@c) gin2 ku3 1(asz@c) sila3 i3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — NM 44.0017. 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: Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia (P212413) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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