OIP 014, 181

About this tablet

An administrative receipt for four woollen garments from the city of Adab in southern Iraq, written in the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE). Each piece of clothing is weighed in minas and shekels, because textiles were valued by the amount of wool they contained; the record notes that the garments came from a man named Lu-dingira and were received back by a person called Me-me. It is a small window into how an ancient household or institution tracked its clothing stock, down to noting that one garment was already old.

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

Written in modern English

Received: four garments. One šaga-du garment, weighing 55 shekels (one mina less five). One bur garment, weighing 13 shekels. One double bar-dul cloak, weighing 3 minas 15 shekels. One nig-lam garment, used, weighing 3 1/3 minas. These came from Lu-dingira and have been returned and accounted for. Signed off by Me-me.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

1. 1 šaga-du garment, 2. its weight: 1 mina minus 5 shekels; 3. 1 bur garment, 4. its weight: 13 shekels; 5. 1 double bar-dul cloak, 6. its weight: 3 minas 15 shekels; 7. 1 nig-lam garment, old, 8. its weight: 3 1/3 minas. 9. From Lu-dingira; 10. returned to hand (received). 11. Me-me.

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.

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Transliteration

1(asz@c) tug2 sza3-ga-du3
ki-la2-bi 1(asz@c) ma-na la2 5(asz@c) gin2
1(asz@c) tug2 bur2
ki-la2-bi 1(u) 3(disz) gin2
1(asz@c) tug2 bar-dul5 tab-ba
ki-la2-bi 3(asz@c) ma-na 1(u) 5(disz) gin2
1(asz@c) tug2 nig2-lam2 nig2 sumun
ki-la2-bi 3(asz@c) 1/3(disz) ma-na
ki lu2-dingir-ra-ta
szu-a gi4-a
me-me

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OIP 014, 181. 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 (P216037) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).

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