Position in chronology
OSP 1, 108
About this tablet
A small accounting note from Nippur, in southern Iraq, written during the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE). It records the fate of a single young goat: taken over from one man, it died while in another man's keeping, and the carcass was delivered to the Ganun-mah, the great storehouse of the Nippur temple administration. The animal is classified as a 'mašdaria', a kind of obligatory offering or contribution owed by a named individual. Such tablets show how meticulously temple bookkeepers tracked even one dead goat so that nobody's obligation was lost from the ledger.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One kid goat, received from Lugal-inimdu, was taken on; while it was in A-GIR-gal's charge it died. The carcass was brought to the great storehouse, the Ganun-mah. A further line about something in the Ganun-mah is damaged, but it seems to mention another death. The animal counts as the mašdaria-contribution owed by Dingir-ga'abe. Dated to the month Udru.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 1 kid (young goat), 2. from Lugal-inimdu 3. was accepted(?); 4. at the place of A-GIR₂-gal 5. it died. 6. To the Ganun-mah (the great storehouse) 7. it was brought. 8. In the Ganun-mah 9. [...] died(?). 10. (It is) the mašdaria-contribution 11. of Dingir-ga'abe. 12. Month: Udru.
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) masz2 ki lugal-inim-du10-ta ba-an-sze3-ga ki a-GIR2@g-gal-ka ab-ba-usz2 ganun-mah-sze3 an#-du ganun#?-mah-a [...]-usz2#? masz2#!-da-ri-<a> dingir#-ga2-ab-e-kam iti udru
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 1, 108. 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: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P216141) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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Related sources
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