Position in chronology
OIP 014, 104
About this tablet
A livestock account from the city of Adab (modern Bismaya, southern Iraq) in the Old Akkadian period, about 2300 BCE. A herd administrator tallies oxen and donkeys under three headings: animals still on hand, animals issued out, and animals written off as losses because they had died. It is a glimpse of how a Sargonic-era estate kept its books, treating dead draft animals as a 'deficit' to be reconciled against the herd it was supposed to have.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The top of the tablet is lost. What survives reads like a balance sheet for draft animals. On hand: 34 assorted donkeys. Issued out: 13 assorted oxen and 10 assorted donkeys. Written off as losses: 74½ assorted oxen and seventy-odd assorted donkeys (the exact number is broken), recorded as the shortfall due to animals that had died. The half-ox is presumably a share in a jointly held animal.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Beginning destroyed) [...] 34 donkeys, [assorted], (are) stationed (present); 13 oxen, assorted, 10 donkeys, assorted, expended; 74½ oxen, [assorted], 7[0+ ...] donkeys, assorted — deficit: fallen (dead) animals.
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(u) 4(disz) ansze# [hi-a] gub-ba-[am3] 1(u) 3(disz) gu4 hi-[a] 1(u) ansze hi-[a] zi-[ga] 1(gesz2) 1(u) 4(disz) 1/2(disz) gu4 [hi-a] 1(gesz2) 1(u) [...] ansze# hi-[a] la2-ia3 ri-ri-ga
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OIP 014, 104. 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 (P215961) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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