Position in chronology
OIP 014, 190
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative account from the city of Adab in southern Iraq, written in the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE). It inventories woollen and linen textiles — the shaggy guz-za cloth, weaver's cloth, and coarser grades — and records the weight of each item in talents and minas. Such lists let the palace or temple storehouse track its cloth, the most valuable manufactured good of the Mesopotamian economy after metal.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The top of the list is gone. What remains reads: so many guz-za cloths of third grade, weighing 10 minas and something more; one guz-za cloth of fourth grade, weighing a talent and fifteen minas; one guz-za cloth of ordinary quality, weighing 43 minas; one weaver's cloth, weighing 16 minas; two u-cloths, weighing 29 minas; some mug-cloths, weighing 13 minas; and then an entry for linen that breaks off. The rest of the tablet is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Beginning broken) 1. [n] guz-za-textile(s), third [grade]; 2. [its weight]: 10 minas [...]. 3. [...] 1 guz-za-textile, fourth grade; 4. [its] weight: 1 talent 15 mi[nas]. 5. 1 guz-za-textile, ordinary quality; 6. its weight: 43 minas. 7. [...] 1 ušbar-textile; 8. its weight: 16 minas. 9. [...] 2 u-textiles; 10. [its] weight: 30 minus 1 (= 29) minas. 11. [...] mug-textile(s); 12. [its] weight: 13 minas. 13. [...] linen [...] (rest broken)
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
[n tug2] guz#-za 3(disz)-[kam us2] [ki-la2-bi] 1(u) ma-na [...] [...] 1(disz) tug2 guz-za 4(disz@t)-kam us2# [ki]-la2-bi 1(asz@c) gu2 1(u) 5(disz) ma-[na] 1(asz@c) tug2 guz-za du ki#-la2-bi 4(u) 3(disz) ma-na [...] 1(disz) tug2 usz-bar ki#-la2-bi 1(u) 6(disz) ma-na [...] 2(disz) tug2 u2 [ki]-la2-bi 3(u) la2 1(asz@c) ma-na [...] tug2 mug [ki-la2]-bi 1(u) 3(disz) ma-na# [...] gada [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OIP 014, 190. 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 (P216046) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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