Position in chronology
OAIC 30
About this tablet
A short personnel roster from Ešnunna (modern Tell Asmar in the Diyala region of Iraq) dating to the Old Akkadian period, roughly 2300–2200 BCE. It lists nine women by name, two of them identified by their brothers, and closes with the single word kulu'u — a term for cult performers associated with the goddess Ištar. Four of the women bear names invoking Eštar (Ištar), which fits the cultic label. It is a glimpse of how a temple or household administration counted its dependent staff, one person per line.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Headcount: one Atī'e; one Eštar-damqat; one Eštar-rabiat; one Izzaza, who is Liburrum's sister; one Alili, who is Abibi's sister; one Salimmeni; one Eštar-tukultī; one Rītum. Nine women in all. They are kulu'u — members of the cult-performer group. Nothing else is recorded on the tablet.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 Atī'e, [1] Eštar-damqat, [1] Eštar-rabiat, 1 Izzaza, sister of Liburrum, 1 Alili, sister of Abibi, 1 Salimmeni, 1 Eštar-tukultī, 1 Rītum: (they are) kulu'u-personnel.
Our translation engine — Fable 5.1. 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) a-ti-e [1(asz@c)] esz18-dar-dam-qa2-at [1(asz@c)] esz18-dar-ra-bi2-at 1(asz@c) i3-za-za _szesz-munus_ li-bur-ri2-im 1(asz@c) a-li-li _szesz-munus_ a-bi2-bi2 1(asz@c) sa2-lim-me-ni 1(asz@c) esz18-dar-tu3-kul2#-ti 1(asz@c) ri-i3#-tum ku-lu-u2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OAIC 30. 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: Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P215902) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.