Position in chronology
OSP 2, 001
About this tablet
A Sargonic-period (c. 2300 BCE) administrative tablet from Nippur, the religious capital of Sumer, now in Philadelphia. It records deliveries of luxury foodstuffs — wine, honey or date syrup, and baskets of fruit or nuts — connected with the great god Enlil of Nippur, almost certainly as temple offerings or provisions, followed by a second smaller batch and grand totals. It is a glimpse of how the Akkadian state kept its ledgers for the supplies that fed the chief sanctuary of the land.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Twenty-four jars of wine, thirty jars of honey (or date syrup), twenty baskets of iš-fruit, twenty baskets of lam-nuts, and a lost quantity of something else — all for Enlil of Nippur. Then a further batch: three jars of wine and five jars of honey. The totals come to thirty-five jars of honey, forty-five baskets of iš-fruit, forty-five baskets of lam-nuts, and at least three dal-vessels of a commodity whose name is broken off. The beginning and end of the tablet are damaged, so some entries and the heading of the second batch are lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 1. [2]4 jars of [wine], 2. [1]0+20 (= 30) jars of honey/syrup, 3. 20 gurdub-baskets of iš₁₁(-fruit), 4. 20 gurdub-baskets of lam(-nuts), 5. [...] ĝeš-[ri ...], 6. (for/of) Enlil 7. (of) Nippur. 8. 3 jars of wine, 9. 5 jars of honey/syrup. 10. Total: 35 jars of honey/syrup(?). 11. [Total:] 45 gurdub-baskets of iš₁₁(-fruit). 12. [Total:] 45 gurdub-baskets of lam(-nuts). 13. [Total: n+]3 dal-vessels of ...-[...].
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
[2(u@c)] 4(asz@c) dug [gesztin] [1(u@c)] 2(u@c) dug lal3 2(u@c)# gurdub2 isz11 2(u@c)# gurdub2# lam# [...] gesz-[ri ...] en-lil2 nibru 3(asz@c) dug gesztin 5(asz@c) dug lal3# szunigin# 3(u@c) 5(asz@c) dug# lal3#? [szunigin] 4(u@c) 5(asz@c) gurdub2 []isz11 [szunigin] 4(u@c) 5(asz@c) gurdub2 lam# [szunigin n] 3(asz@c) dal# x-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 001. 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 (P216153) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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