Position in chronology
OSP 2, 117
About this tablet
A small administrative note from Nippur in the Old Akkadian period (c. 2300 BCE), the age of Sargon's dynasty. It records allotments of onions and garlic — several varieties, measured by the ban (roughly ten liters each) — destined for the governor's table and for the temple of Ninurta, Nippur's warrior god. Two recurring monthly quotas are fixed, and the official responsible, a chief administrator named Sipa-Enlil, is named at the end. It is a glimpse of how the kitchens of the palace and the great temple were provisioned with everyday vegetables.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a supply record. Four ban of shallot-type onions, two ban of tu-onions and two ban of crushed garlic go to the governor's dining table; E-lu is the person connected with that delivery. Then two standing orders: every month, three ban of onions are set aside for Ninurta — that is, for his temple — and every month another three ban are issued under Sipa-Enlil, the chief steward of the household. In short, a note fixing the monthly onion and garlic rations owed to the governor's kitchen and to the god's temple.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 4 ban of sikil-onions (shallots), 2. 2 ban of tu-onions, 2 ban of crushed onions (garlic), 3. for the table of the governor (ensi): 4. E-lu. 5. Monthly, 3 ban of onions each — 6. it is (for) Ninurta. 7. Monthly, 3 ban of onions each — 8. Sipa-Enlil, the chief household administrator (šabra).
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
4(ban2@c) szum2-sikil 2(ban2@c) szum2 tu 2(ban2@c) szum2 gaz banszur ensi2-sze3 e2-lu2 iti-da 3(ban2@c) szum2-ta nin-urta-kam iti-da-a 3(ban2@c) szum2-ta sipa-en-lil2 szabra
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 117. 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 (P216271) — 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.