Position in chronology
OSP 2, 027
About this tablet
A fragment of an administrative account from Nippur in the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE), written in the Akkadian language. It records quantities of copper, measured in minas and shekels, issued for items called urakkum — probably a type of implement or object, specified as 'large' and 'small' — one group of which is tied to ration allotments and sized by 'reed' units. Though broken, it is a glimpse of how a temple or palace workshop at Nippur tracked expensive metal going out for manufactured goods.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The top of the tablet is lost. What survives reads: so many shekels of copper for a number of urakkum-items belonging to the ration allotment, each measured at one reed; then some minas and 4 shekels of copper for an item whose name ends in -matum; then some minas and 6 shekels of copper for one large urakkum; and finally an entry for small urakkum-items. The rest of the account is broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Beginning destroyed) 1. [...] shekels of copper 2. [for x] urakkum(s) of the ration (allotment), 3. those of 1 reed each; 4. [n] mina(s) 4 shekels of copper 5. [for ...]matum; 6. [n mi]na(s) 6 shekels of copper 7. [for 1] large urakkum; 8. [... for ... urakkum(s)] small. (rest destroyed)
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
[...] _gin2# uruda#_ [a-na x] u3-ra-ki2 _szuku_-tim szu-ut 1(asz@c) _gi-ta_ [n] _ma-na_ 4(asz@c) _gin2 uruda_ [a-na ...]-ma-tim [n _ma]-na_ 6(asz@c) _gin2 uruda_ [a-na 1(asz@c) u3]-ra-ki-im _gal_ [... u3-ra-ki-im] _tur_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 027. 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 (P216178) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.