Position in chronology
OSP 2, 007
About this tablet
An account of foodstuffs from Nippur in the Old Akkadian period (about 2300–2200 BCE), listing sheep, meat, soup, fish, vegetables, salt, beer, dates and apples in large quantities. The sheer scale—over a thousand portions of soup and more than five hundred jars of beer—suggests provisions for a major feast, festival, or the feeding of a large workforce. It gives a vivid picture of the menu of a Mesopotamian institutional kitchen and of the scribes' habit of recording round numbers 'minus' a small remainder.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a tally of provisions: 12 sheep and 15 portions of meat; about 1,435 liters of soup; 1,183 split fish and roughly three and a half gur (several hundred liters) of dried fish; 229 bundles of greens; a little over 40 liters of salt; 520 jars of beer; 15 gur of dates; and 1 gur of apples. The text records only the quantities and commodities—no recipient, purpose, or date is given on this piece.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 12 sheep; 20 minus 5 (= 15) (portions of) meat; 2. 2 gešʾu 4 geš minus 5 (= 1,435) sila of soup; 3. 2 gešʾu minus 17 (= 1,183) split fish; 4. 3 gur 3 barig minus 1 ban of dried fish; 5. 3 geš 50 minus 1 (= 229) bundles of greens; 6. 4 ban 2 sila of salt; 7. 8 geš 40 (= 520) jars of beer; 8. 15 gur of dates; 9. 1 gur of apples.
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(u@c) 2(asz@c) udu 2(u) la2 5(asz@c) uzu 2(gesz'u@c) 4(gesz2) la2 5(asz@c) sila3 tu7 2(gesz'u@c) la2 1(u@c) 7(asz@c) ku6 dar-ra 3(asz@c) 3(barig@c) la2 1(ban2@c) ku6 had2 gur 3(gesz2@c) 5(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) sa-sar 4(ban2@c) 2(asz@c) sila3 mun 8(gesz2@c) 4(u@c) dug kasz 1(u@c) 5(asz@c) zu2-lum gur 1(asz@c) haszhur gur
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 007. 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 (P216159) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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