Position in chronology
OSP 2, 085
About this tablet
An Old Akkadian-period account from Nippur in central Iraq (roughly 2300–2200 BCE), listing large quantities of a dry commodity — almost certainly barley, measured in gur, ban and sila — credited to named men and grouped under the fields they relate to: the 'upper field', the field of Enzi-kalama, the 'lesser field', and the 'small upper field'. It is the kind of ledger a temple or estate administrator at Nippur kept to track the harvest or the seed-grain owed from each tract of land. Note the scribe's slip in the last entry, where he wrote 'minus 3 ban' twice and the editor marks the extra phrase as a mistake.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a grain ledger organized by field. First, 123 gur were handed over, under the name Kabku; of that, the share belonging to the Upper Field is listed. Then come the entries: Ur-tir with 240 gur and 2 ban, for the field of Enzi-kalama; Kabku and Lu-lila with 30 gur 2 ban; Sag-dingir-tuku with 70 gur 2 ban; Kar-sa with 20 gur 2 ban; Ne-sag with about 120 gur 2 ban, for the Lesser Field; and finally Lugal-itida with 200 gur 3 ban less 3 sila (the scribe accidentally repeated 'less 3 ban' here), for the Small Upper Field. No total is written on what we have.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 123 (gur) given; [Kabku]. 2. Within it (i.e. of this amount): 3. the field of Igi-nima (the 'upper field'). 4. 240 (gur) 2 ban: Ur-tir. 5. The field of Enzi-kalama. 6. 30 (gur) 2 ban: Kabku, 7. Lu-lila. 8. 70 (gur) 2 ban: Sag-dingir-tuku. 9. 20 (gur) 2 ban: Kar-sa. 10. 120(?) (gur) 2 ban: Ne-sag. 11. The field of Banda (the 'lesser field'). 12. 200 (gur) 3 ban <<minus 3 ban>> (dittography) minus 3 sila: Lugal-itida. 13. The field of Igi-nima-tur (the 'small upper field').
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
2(gesz2@c) 3(asz@c) szum2 [kab2-ku5] sza3-ga-ni GAN2 igi-nim-ma 4(gesz2@c) 2(ban2@c) ur-tir GAN2 en-zi-kalam-ma 3(u@c) 2(ban2@c) kab2-ku5 lu-lil-la 1(gesz2@c) 1(u@c) 2(ban2@c) sag-dingir-tuku 2(u@c) 2(ban2@c) kar-sa6 2(gesz2@c)#? 2(ban2@c) ne#-sag GAN2 banda3 3(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) 3(ban2@c) <<la2 3(ban2)>> la2 3(disz) sila3 lugal-iti-da GAN2 igi-nim-ma-tur
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 085. 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 (P216239) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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