OSP 1, 120

About this tablet

A land register from Nippur in the Old Akkadian period (c. 2300 BCE), listing parcels of farmland measured in the Sumerian units bur, eše and iku, each assigned to a named person. The holders are a mix of Sumerian and Akkadian names, reflecting the bilingual society of the Sargonic empire. Such lists show how a temple or state household kept track of who cultivated — or held as allotment — which fields; the parcels range from about a hectare to roughly 26 hectares.

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

Written in modern English

This is a list of field plots and the people who hold them. Ur-lugal has 2 bur and 1 eše of land (about 15 hectares); Iriš has about 2 bur and 1 iku; Ida-il about 1 bur, 1 eše and 1 iku; Bubu's figure is lost. Ur-Šulpa'e has 1 bur, while Šab and E-sikil each hold 4 bur — the largest plots on the tablet, around 26 hectares each. Gugal has roughly 1 bur and 1 eše, and the entry for someone whose name ends in -gi is broken. Me-abzu, Ubartum and Nin-nigzu each hold 1 bur and 1 eše. The last entry, a person whose name ends in -atum, is damaged, and the beginnings of several lines are lost.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

1. 2 bur 1 eše (of) <field> — Ur-lugal. 2. [...] 2 bur(?) 1 iku (of) <field> — Iriš. 3. [...] 1 bur(?) 1 eše(?) 1 iku(?) (of) <field> — Ida-il(?). 4. [...] — Bubu. 5. 1 bur (of) <field> — Ur-Šulpa'e. 6. 4 bur (of) <field> — Šab. 7. 4 bur (of) <field> — E-sikil. 8. 1 bur(?) 1 eše [...] (of) <field> — Gugal(?). 9. [...]-gi. 10. 1 bur 1 eše (of) <field> — Me-abzu. 11. 1 bur 1 eše (of) <field> — Ubartum. 12. 1 bur 1 eše (of) <field> — Nin-nigzu. 13. [...]-atum.

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(bur3@c) 1(esze3@c) <GAN2> ur-lugal
[...] 2(bur3@c)#? 1(iku@c) <GAN2> i3-ri2-isz
[...] 1(bur3@c)#? 1(esze3@c)#? 1(iku@c)#? <GAN2> i-da#?-il
[...] bu3-bu3
1(bur3@c) <GAN2> ur-szul-pa-e3
4(bur3@c) <GAN2> sza3-ab
4(bur3@c) <GAN2> e2-sikil
1(bur3@c)#? 1(esze3@c) [...] <GAN2> gu2?-gal
[...]-gi4
1(bur3@c) 1(esze3@c) <GAN2> me-abzu
1(bur3@c) 1(esze3@c) <GAN2> u9-bar-tum
1(bur3@c) 1(esze3@c) <GAN2> nin-nig2-zu
[...]-a-tum

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 1, 120. 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 (P216142) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).

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