Position in chronology
OIP 014, 090
About this tablet
A small livestock account from Adab in southern Iraq, written in the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE). It records a handful of cattle — three cows and an ox — assigned to the commissioner's office and lodged at a workhouse for female labourers attached to the E-maš, and then notes that one ox from this group was taken over by a named cowherd, Ur-dingira, from the palace. It is a glimpse of how a provincial palace tracked even single animals as they moved between institutions and keepers.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Three cows and one ox, held on behalf of the commissioner's office, have been assigned to the women's workhouse of the E-maš. Out of that group, one ox was handed over from the palace to the cowherd Ur-dingira, who took charge of it. Recorded in the month of Du-ku. The numbers after the cows and the first ox are damaged, so any further detail about those animals is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Obverse) 1. 3 cows [...] 2. 1 ox [...] 3. (these are) the property of the maškim-office, 4. in the house of the female workers of the E-maš: it is allotted (al-ba-a-kam). 5. [From] among them: 6. 1 ox, 1 (head), 7. Ur-dingira, the cowherd, 8. from the palace 9. received (took in charge). 10. Month: Du-ku.
Our translation engine — Fable 5.1. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
3(asz@c) ab2 [n] 1(asz@c) gu4 [n] nig2 nam-maszkim e2 geme2 e2-masz-ka al-ba-a-kam [sza3]-bi-ta 1(asz@c) gu4 1(disz@t) ur-dingir-ra unu3 e2-gal-ta i3-dab5-esz2 iti du6-ku3#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OIP 014, 090. 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: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P215947) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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Related sources
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