Position in chronology
OSP 2, 066
About this tablet
A short inventory from Nippur in the Old Akkadian period (roughly 2300 BCE) listing the possessions of a merchant named Lugal-KA-gina. His assets, as the scribe counted them, included a parcel of farmland of about one hectare, some built property, a small quantity of a measured commodity, and seven slaves — five men and two women. Such tallies of a private individual's wealth are rare for this early date and show how a trader's capital was held: in land, buildings and people rather than in silver. The tablet is damaged, so the first entries are only partly legible.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a list of what belongs to Lugal-KA-gina, the merchant, and confirms that it is all present and accounted for. The first two entries are too broken to read in full — one item of something, and about ten of something beginning 'en-'. Then: one barig (around 60 liters) of a commodity called ab-zana, three iku of field (about one hectare) at the place KA-kimdu, two house-plots, five male slaves and two female slaves. The closing line states that these goods, the property of the merchant, are on hand.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 1 [...] 2. 10(?) en-[...] 3. 1 barig of ab-zana(?) 4. 3 iku of field (at) KA-ki[mdu] 5. 2 e-šar (house-plots?) 6. 5 male [slaves] 7. 2 female [slaves] 8. property of Lugal-[KA]-gi[na], 9. the merch[ant]; 10. it is [on hand].
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(asz@c) [...] 1(u@c)? en-[...] 1(barig@c) ab2-[za-na] 3(iku@c) GAN2 KA ki#-[im-du] 2(asz@c) e2-szar 5(asz@c) sag-[nita] 2(asz@c) sag-[munus] nig2-gur11 lugal-[KA]-gi-[na] dam#-gar3-[ra-kam] i3-[gal2]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 066. 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 (P216220) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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