Position in chronology
OIP 014, 102
About this tablet
A small beer-ration account from Adab (modern Bismaya, central Iraq) in the Sargonic period, around 2300 BCE. A scribe records beer handed out to a handful of named men — some identified by whose retainer they are — and totals the amount together with the barley it cost to brew it, booking it as an expenditure of a particular household in the month Ab-e. It is a glimpse of the everyday rationing system in which beer, rather than money, paid people for their service.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Ten sila of beer went to Ur-Nisaba, ten sila to Bēlī-dabum, and four sila to Geš-šu, who works for Eliš-mani; Šu-ilī, who works for the household's chief administrator, is also listed. Altogether that comes to one standard measure of beer, representing two ban (about 20 liters) of barley. It is booked as an outlay from the household of Sukkal-gesi, in the month Ab-e, under expenditures.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 10 sila of beer: 2. Ur-Nisaba; 3. 10 sila: Bēlī-dabum; 4. 4 sila: Geš-šu, 5. the man of Eliš-mani; 6. Šu-ilī, 7. the man of the chief administrator of the household. 8. Total: 1 (measure) of beer; 9. its barley: 2 ban. 10. Expenditure 11. (from) the household of Sukkal-gesi. 12. Month 'Ab-e': expenditure.
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(u) sila3 kasz ur-nisaba 1(u) sila3 be-li2-da-bum2 4(disz) sila3 gesz-szu12 lu2 e-li-isz-ma-ni szu#?-i-i3-li2 lu2# szabra e2 szunigin 1(asz@c) kasz sze-bi 2(ban2@c) zi-ga e2 sukkal-ge-si iti ab-e3 zi-ga
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OIP 014, 102. 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 (P215959) — 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.