Position in chronology
OAIC 45
About this tablet
A badly broken administrative tablet from Ešnunna (modern Tell Asmar in eastern Iraq), written in the Old Akkadian period, around 2300–2150 BCE, when the city was under the rule of the kings of Akkad. The surviving scraps record outlays of copper measured in shekels — apparently for oxen, for a leatherworker, and for people working on bricks — followed by a list of personal names, probably the recipients or the parties involved. It is a glimpse of how a provincial household or institution paid out metal for livestock, craftsmen and building labour; too damaged to reconstruct the full transaction, but typical of the everyday bookkeeping that survives in large numbers from this period.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
What remains reads like a list of payments. Someone identified as the son of Warassuni is involved; a sum is set aside for Isugi and another for the oxen, with the amounts counted in shekels of copper. A leatherworker is paid, and so are the people assigned to the bricks. After a gap, the tablet lists names — Dania, Nabium, someone whose name ends in -zu, Tabni, and two more whose names are only partly readable — most likely the individuals who received or owed these amounts. The beginning and end of the tablet, and the figures themselves, are lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Beginning destroyed) [......] [son] of Warassuni, for Isugi, for the oxen, ...... shekel(s) of copper, the leatherworker, those of the bricks; [......] (Break) Dania, Nabium, [...]-zu, Tabni, [...]-ni, [...]-ib. (rest destroyed)
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
[...] _dumu_ ARAD2-su2-ni a-na i-su-gi a-na gu4-gu4 _gin2 uruda_ _aszgab_ szu-ut _sig4_ [...] da-ni-a na-bi2-um [...]-zu tab-ni [...]-ni [...]-ib
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OAIC 45. 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 (P215917) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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