Position in chronology
OSP 2, 067
About this tablet
A small property inventory from Nippur in southern Iraq, dating to the Old Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE), when the city was under the rule of the kings of Akkad. It lists what a merchant named Lugal-inimgina has on hand: two plots of farmland of about 1.4 and 1.1 hectares, a couple of house-plots, and seven slaves, five men and two women. It is a reminder that in the age of Sargon's dynasty, private traders could own land and people, and that scribes kept careful records of such holdings.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Four iku of field, the field belonging to Abzana, is on hand. Three iku of field at Kimdua is on hand. Two house-plots, five male slaves and two female slaves — the holdings of Lugal-inimgina, the merchant — are present and accounted for. A few numbers at the start of lines are damaged, but the sense of the inventory is clear.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 4 iku [of field], 2. field of Ab-za[na], 3. is present (there). 4. 3 iku of field, 5. (at) Kimdua, 6. is present (there). 7. [2] e₂-šar (house-plots?), 8. 5 male slaves, 9. [2] female slaves — 10. the |U.ŠA| (holdings?) of Lugal-inimgina, 11. (this is) that of the merchant; 12. it is present/available.
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
4(iku@c) [GAN2] GAN2 ab2-za-[na] an-gal2 3(iku@c) GAN2 ki-im-du-a an-gal2 [2(asz@c)] e2-szar 5(asz@c)# sag-nita [2(disz)] sag#-munus |U.SZA| lugal-inim#-gi-na# dam-gar3-ra-kam al-gal2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 067. 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 (P216221) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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