Position in chronology
OSP 2, 024
About this tablet
A small administrative note from Nippur in the Old Akkadian period (around 2300–2200 BCE), written in Akkadian. It records gold figurines of mythical creatures — eight 'bison-men' and two hairy heroes (laḫmu) — being mounted, apparently by two named craftsmen, together with eight copper bases. Such composite figures were set up in temples as protective and decorative images, and this memo is a rare glimpse of the goldsmith's workshop behind them.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Eight gold bison-man figures and two gold laḫmu (hairy-hero) figures: Išmuṭu and Ikbari fastened them in place. Also eight copper bases for the ... (the final word is unclear). That is the whole record.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 8 bison(-figures) (kusarikkū), 2. 2 laḫmu-figures (laḫmān), 3. (of) gold — 4. Išmuṭu(?) 5. and Ikbari 6. fastened (them). 7. 8 copper bases (for) ... (GAN₂).
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
8(asz@c)# gu4-sa3-ri2-ku 2(asz@c) la-ah-ma-an _ku3-sig17_ isz-mu-t,u2 u3 ik-ba-ri er3-ku-su2 8(asz@c) _suhusz uruda gan2_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 024. 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 (P216175) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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