Position in chronology
OIP 014, 147
About this tablet
A small accounting tablet from Adab (modern Bismaya, southern Iraq) in the Old Akkadian period, around 2300 BCE. It records beer handed out to three recipients — a scribe named Ur-nigar, an official called the maškim, and a man from the neighbouring city of Umma — and books the issue as an expenditure of the household of the sukkal, a high official. Short texts like this are the routine paperwork behind the daily movement of beer and barley in a Mesopotamian administrative establishment, and this one is dated to the month of the Akiti festival.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One ban of beer (about ten litres) goes to Ur-nigar the scribe; one ban to the commissioner; two ban to the man from Umma. In total that is one barig-measure of beer, which counts as two ban worth of barley. The issue is charged to the account of the sukkal's household, in the month of the Akiti festival.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 1. [1 ban] of beer 2. Ur-nigar, 3. the scribe; 4. 1 ban: the maškim (commissioner); 5. 2 ban: the man of Umma. 6. Total: 1 (barig) of beer, 7. its barley (equivalent): 2 ban. 8. Expenditure (booked) 9. of the house of the sukkal. 10. Month: Akiti.
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
[1(ban2@c)] kasz ur#-nigar dub#-sar 1(ban2@c) lu2-maszkim 2(ban2@c) lu2-umma szunigin 1(asz@c) kasz sze-bi 2(ban2@c) zi-ga e2-sukkal-ge iti# a2-ki-ti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OIP 014, 147. 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 (P216003) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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