Position in chronology
OIP 014, 116
About this tablet
A tiny field-survey record from Adab in southern Iraq, written in the Sargonic (Old Akkadian) period around 2300 BCE. A surveyor has noted the length and width of a plot, computed its area at ten bur (roughly 65 hectares), and assigned it to a man with the Akkadian name Šarru-dūrī ('the king is my fortress'), locating it in a named tract, the Sug-gal-mah. It is a glimpse of how the Akkadian state measured and allotted agricultural land, and of Akkadian-named officials holding fields in an old Sumerian city.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Survey note: the plot measures 70 (and 44 and a half) rods on the short sides and 315 rods on the long sides, the dimensions being irregular. Total area: ten bur. The holder is Šarru-dūrī. The land lies in the Sug-gal-mah field district.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 70 (nindan) is the length (sag), 44 1/2 (nindan); 2. 315 (nindan) is the side (us2), various (hi-a); 3. its field (area): 10 bur; 4. Šarru-dūrī. 5. Field of the Sug-gal-mah.
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(gesz2) 1(u) sag 4(u) 4(disz) 1/2(disz) 5(gesz2) 1(u) 5(disz) us2 hi-a a-sza3-bi 1(bur'u@c) GAN2 szar-ru-du2-ri2 GAN2 sug-gal-mah
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OIP 014, 116. 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 (P215972) — 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.