NMSA 3650

~2270 BCE·Akkadian Empire·P341944

About this tablet

This is a small receipt or disbursement note from the Akkadian (Sargonic) period, around 2300–2200 BCE. It records sesame oil issued to two named people. The oil is measured by the 'Sumerian' sila, which suggests the scribe was distinguishing it from another measuring standard in use at the time. An official named Lugal-pada supervised the issue, and the note is dated to the eighth month of a second regnal or administrative year. The tablet is now in the National Museum of Syria in Aleppo, and where it was found is unknown.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

Sesame oil, measured by the Sumerian sila: an allowance went to Enlil-mes, and one sila (roughly a litre) went to NI.TUKU-gal. The tablet does not say how much Enlil-mes received. Lugal-pada oversaw the transaction as the responsible official. Dated the eighth month of year two.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

Obverse/Reverse (no section markers given in the source): 1. Sesame oil, (by the) Sumerian sila: 2. Enlil-mes (received an unstated amount); 3. 1 sila, Sumerian (measure): 4. NI.TUKU-gal. 5. Lugal-pada 6. (was) its commissioner. 7. Year 2, month 8.

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

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

i3-gesz sila3 eme-gi7
en-lil2-mes
1(disz) sila3 eme-gi7
NI.TUKU-gal
lugal-pa3-da-ke4
maszkim-bi
2(disz@t) mu 8(disz@t) iti

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — NMSA 3650. 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: National Museum of Syria, Aleppo, Syria (P341944) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).

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