Position in chronology
OSP 2, 029
About this tablet
A small Old Akkadian account from Nippur (c. 2300–2200 BCE), the city of the great temple of Enlil. It allocates quantities of a material or component called ganūnu for pieces of door hardware: a bolt associated with a dragon (perhaps a dragon-shaped or dragon-decorated bolt), an item called saḫartum, and pegs. The final line marks it as the sixth in a running series of such records. Modest as it is, the tablet offers a glimpse of the craft workshops that fitted out monumental buildings with decorated fittings — the dragon being a familiar guardian image in Mesopotamian architecture.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Thirteen and a half units of ganūnu were set aside for a single bolt with a dragon on it; one and a half units for the saḫartum; and five units for pegs. This is the sixth record in the sequence.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 13½ ganūnu 2. for 1 bolt (of/with) a dragon, 3. 1½ ganūnu 4. for the saḫartum, 5. 5 ganūnu 6. for pegs. 7. The sixth (entry), following in sequence.
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
1(u@c) 3(asz@c) 1/2(asz@c) ga-nu-nu a-na 1(asz@c) _sag-gul uszumgal_ 1(asz@c) 1/2(asz@c) ga-nu-nu a-na sa-ha-ar-tim 5(asz@c) ga-nu-nu a-na _kak-ka2_ _6(disz@t)-kam-ma us2_
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 029. 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 (P216180) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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