OIP 014, 173

About this tablet

A small fish account from the city of Adab (modern Bismaya in southern Iraq), written in the Old Akkadian period, around 2300 BCE. It lists several kinds of fish — carp and other species — totalling fifty-two, some earmarked for a porter and some for a regular cultic offering, and ends by naming the official, Lugal-teš, who took delivery. Fish were a staple of the Mesopotamian marsh and river economy, and this receipt shows how even a handful of them passed through institutional bookkeeping.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

Twenty carp, for the porter. Ten ubi-fish, for the regular offering. Then a further seven carp, eleven ubi-fish, two ne-carp (perhaps roasted), and two gam-gam fish. All told, fifty-two fish. Lugal-teš received them.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

1. 20 suhur-fish (carp), 2. (for/of) the porter (ug-IL₂); 3. 10 ubi-fish, 4. (for) the regular offering (nig-du); 5. 7 suhur-fish (carp), 6. 11 ubi-fish, 7. 2 ne-suhur (roasted? carp), 8. 2 gam-gam fish; 9. total: 52 fish. 10. Lugal-teš 11. received (them).

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

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

2(u) suhur ku6#
ug3-IL2
1(u) ubi
nig2-du7
7(disz@t) suhur
1(u) 1(disz@t) ubi
2(disz@t)# ne suhur
2(disz@t) gam-gam ku6
szunigin 5(u) 2(disz@t) ku6
lugal-tesz2
szu ba-ti

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OIP 014, 173. 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 (P216029) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet (VAT 15211)

An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.

~2050 BCE

Umma Livestock and Personnel Account (AnOr 1, 243)

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.

~3300 BCE

AoF 30, 238,1