Position in chronology
OSP 1, 154
About this tablet
A small ration list from Nippur in southern Iraq, written during the Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE), recording measures of beer handed out to named individuals. Among the recipients are a potter, an overseer, and men with both Sumerian and Akkadian names, including one connected with the city of Umma — a snapshot of the mixed population working for a Nippur institution. Beer was a staple wage in Mesopotamia, so lists like this are the payroll records of their day. The tablet is damaged at the top and bottom, so the opening entries and the final total are lost.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a beer distribution record. The top is broken, but it begins with a quantity of beer, then lists recipients: the potter, an overseer, Ur-sag, Ur-ašgi, and then Puzur-Eštar with 2 measures, Sig-e with 1, Šu-ilišu with 1, Lu-u (the man from Umma) with 1, Lu-lugal with 1, Ide-de with 1, and one more recipient whose name is lost, with 1. The record closes with a total of beer, but the figure is broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Beginning broken) 1. [...] beer 2. (for) the potter 3. [... the] overseer (nu-banda) 4. [... Ur]-sag 5. [... Ur]-[ašgi] 6. 2 (measures): Puzur-Eštar 7. 1 (measure): Sig-e(?) 8. 1 (measure): Šu-ili[šu] 9. 1 (measure): Lu-u 10. (of) Umma 11. 1 (measure): Lu-lugal 12. 1 (measure): Ide-de 13. 1 (measure): [...] 14. [Its total]: 15. [...] beer
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
[...] kasz# bahar2# [... nu]-banda3 [... ur]-sag# [... ur]-[aszgi] 2(asz@c) puzur4#-esz18-dar 1(asz@c) sig-e2? 1(asz@c) szu-i3-li2-[su] 1(asz@c) lu2-u5 umma 1(asz@c) lu2-lugal 1(asz@c) i7-de3-de3 1(asz@c) [...] [szunigin]-bi3# [...] kasz
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 1, 154. 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 (P216152) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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