Position in chronology
OSP 2, 073
About this tablet
A small debt or credit memorandum from Nippur in the Sargonic (Old Akkadian) period, about 2300–2200 BCE. It records that a man named Inanna-ursag is accountable for a modest package of goods — eight shekels of silver, two large measures of flour and two liters of oil — and that two other men, Aba-Enlile and Lugal-nigzu, hold the claim on him. Such notes are the receipts and IOUs of an early urban economy, where silver already served as money alongside staple foods.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This note concerns Inanna-ursag. The amounts outstanding are 8 shekels of silver, 2 lidga (large measures) of flour, and 2 sila (about 2 liters) of oil. Aba-Enlile and Lugal-nigzu are the ones who hold this claim against him.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [Inanna-ur]sag(?): 2. its silver: 8 shekels; 3. its flour: 2 lidga; 4. its oil: 2 sila. 5. Aba-Enlile 6. (and) Lugal-nigzu 7. have (a claim) with him.
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
[inanna-ur]-sag? ku3-bi3 8(asz@c) gin2 zi3-bi3 2(asz@c) lid2-ga i3-bi3 2(disz) sila3 a-ba-en-lil2-e lugal-nig2-zu an-da-tuku
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 073. 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 (P216227) — 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.