Position in chronology
OSP 2, 028
About this tablet
A small workshop account from Nippur in the Sargonic (Old Akkadian) period, written in Akkadian with Sumerian logograms. It records how many units of a material called ganūnu were used up for pieces of door furniture: two bolts each decorated with a water-buffalo (apsasû) figure, some pegs, some small items, a support, and a fitting for the city gate. The final line marks it as the third tablet in a running series, so it belongs to a set of consecutive records kept by a craftsman or an overseer of woodwork or metalwork for the city's gates.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Nine ganūnu went into one water-buffalo figure for a door bolt, and another nine into a second water-buffalo figure for a bolt. Three ganūnu were used for pegs, two for the small pieces, and one for a support, along with one fitting for the city gate. This is the third tablet in the series, continuing from the previous one.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 10 less 1 (= 9) ganūnu 2. for 1 apsasītum (water-buffalo figure) of the bolt; 3. 10 less 1 (= 9) ganūnu 4. for 1 apsasītum (water-buffalo figure) of the bolt; 5. 3 ganūnu 6. for the peg(s); 7. 2 ganūnu 8. for the small ones; 9. 1 ganūnum 10. for the support (and) 1 fitting of the city gate. 11. Third (tablet), following.
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) _la2_ 1(asz@c) ga-nu-nu a-na 1(asz@c) _ab2-za-za_-tim _sag-gul_ 1(u@c) _la2_ 1(asz@c) ga-nu-nu a-na 1(asz@c) _ab2-za-za_-tim _sag-gul_ 3(asz@c) ga-nu-nu a-na _kak-ka2_ 2(asz@c) ga-nu-nu a-na _tur-tur_ 1(asz@c) ga-nu-num2 a-na ri2-su-ti 1(asz@c) si-im-ti _abul_ _3(disz@t)-kam-ma us2_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 028. 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 (P216179) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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