Position in chronology
OIP 014, 152
About this tablet
A tiny beer-ration receipt from Adab (modern Bismaya, southern Iraq) in the Old Akkadian period, around 2300 BCE. Two men, Bazuzu and Imiqum, each get 5 liters of beer, and the clerk converts the total into the amount of barley it took to brew it — about two-thirds of the volume. It shows how the Sargonic administration tracked beer, the everyday drink and wage of Mesopotamian workers, back to its raw grain cost, down to the fraction of a liter.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Bazuzu was issued 5 liters of beer, and Imiqum another 5 liters. That makes 10 liters of beer in all, which cost 6 2/3 liters of barley to brew. The amount has been booked as an expenditure charged to the household of the sukkal (the official called Gesi). Recorded as an outlay in the month of Ab-e.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 5 sila of beer 2. — Bazuzu; 3. 5 sila — Imiqum. 4. Total: 10 sila of beer; 5. its barley (equivalent): 6 2/3 sila. 6. Expenditure (booked) 7. (from) the house of the sukkal, Gesi (E-sukkal-gesi). 8. 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.
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Transliteration
5(disz) sila3 kasz ba-zu-zu 5(disz) sila3 i-mi-iq-um szunigin 1(u) sila3 kasz sze-bi 6(disz) 2/3(disz) sila3 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, 152. 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 (P216008) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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