Position in chronology
OSP 2, 139
About this tablet
A small barley account from Nippur in the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, about 2300–2200 BCE, when the city was under the rule of the dynasty of Sargon of Akkad. A scribe named Ur-Damu draws rations in connection with the local governor's trip to the imperial capital, Agade, and two further people — one of them a soldier attached to a household overseer — receive smaller amounts, all issued from the stock of an official called Lugal-nig-baradu. The closing note, apparently blaming a storm for ruining a newly opened field, may explain why the grain had to be handed out. It is an ordinary piece of provincial bookkeeping that nonetheless shows the ties between Nippur and the Akkadian capital.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two barig of barley (roughly 120 liters) went to Ur-Damu the scribe; he collected it when the governor set off for Agade. Another two barig went to Lugal-nammah, and one ban (about 10 liters) to a man whose name is lost, a soldier serving under the household overseer. All of it was taken out of the supplies held by Lugal-nig-baradu. The reason given at the end seems to be that a storm had wrecked the newly laid-out field — though the first entry's commodity and the exact sense of this last line are not fully preserved.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 2 barig [of barley(?)] — 2. Ur-Da[mu], 3. the scribe, 4.–5. received (it) on the occasion of the governor's journey to Agade. 6. 2 barig — Lugal-nammah. 7. 1 ban — [...], 8. the soldier of the overseer of the [household]. 9. From Lugal-nig-baradu 10. it was expended (withdrawn). 11.–12. Because the new field was carried off by the storm(?).
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(barig@c) [...] ur-da-[mu] dub-sar-e ensi2 a-ga-de3 du-ni szu ba-ti 2(barig@c) lugal-nam2-mah 1(ban2@c) [...] aga3-us2 ugula-[e2] ki lugal-nig2-bara4-du10-ta al-zi mu GAN2 gibil u4-de3 ba-de6-[a]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 139. 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 (P216293) — 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.