Position in chronology
OIP 014, 188
About this tablet
A small receipt from the city of Adab in southern Iraq, written in the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE), when the Sargonic dynasty ruled Sumer. It records wool, a little sesame oil, and a shekel of silver handed in by three named men identified as sheep-herders, and received by an official called Dugani. Such tablets show how the state or a temple collected the wool clip from its shepherds each year and kept written track of who had delivered what.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Gigir-x hands over 5 2/3 minas of wool. Uda hands over 12 minas of wool. Lu-dingira hands over 11 minas of wool, plus 5 sila (about 5 liters) of sesame oil and 1 shekel of silver. A further, partly broken entry gives roughly 30 2/3 minas of wool. These men are the shepherds in charge of the sheep. This is a delivery, and Dugani received it.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 5 2/3 minas of [wool] — 2. Gigir-x; 3. 12 minas of [wool] — 4. Uda; 5. 11 minas of wool, 6. 5 sila of sesame oil (lit. 'sesame oil, oil'), 7. 1 shekel of silver — 8. Lu-dingira; 9. [......] 30(?) 2/3 minas of wool — 10. (they are) the shepherds of the sheep. 11. Delivery; 12. Dugani 13. received (it).
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
5(asz@c)# 2/3(asz@c) _ma-na [siki_] gigir-x 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) _ma-na [siki_] u2-da 1(u@c) 1(asz@c) _ma-na siki_ 5(disz) _sila3 i3-gesz i3_ 1(asz@c) _gin2 ku3-babbar_ lu2-dingir-ra [...] 3(u@c)#? 2/3(asz@c) _ma-na siki_ _sipa udu-me_ _mu-kux(DU)_ du11-ga-ni im-hur
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OIP 014, 188. 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 (P216044) — 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.