Position in chronology
OSP 2, 145
About this tablet
A small, badly broken administrative tablet from Nippur in the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, around 2300 BCE. It records quantities of onions or garlic of different kinds — 'pure' onions (šum-sikil) and crushed onions — measured out by a scribe named Ur-Enkika, part of it apparently supplied for the governor's journey. It is a glimpse of everyday provisioning: the vegetables that stocked an official's travelling rations, counted and checked by the temple or palace bookkeepers.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet lists batches of onions. One entry is a number of large lidga-measures of šum-sikil onions; another is crushed onions. Ur-Enkika the scribe handled them. Part of the issue was for someone whose name is lost, and for the governor's trip. A further lot of onions is noted as checked by measure. The next lines are too damaged to read beyond a word for 'house' and another mention of šum-sikil onions; the last line records yet another quantity of onions, but the end is broken.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [n lidga] of šum-sikil onions, 2. [...] crushed onions (šum-gaz); 3. [Ur-]Enkika, the scribe. 4. for [...]-kam; for the governor (ensi), for the journey (expedition). 5. [...]-ga-a-a. 6. [n ... onions], checked (by measure) (kab-ku5). 7. [...]-im(?) 8. [...] house/estate (e2). 9. [...] šum-sikil onions. 10. [n onions] ... tu lu2 (?).
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
[n szum2]-sikil# lid2-ga [...] szum2 gaz [ur-]en#-ki-ka dub-sar [...]-kam#-sze3 ensi2 kaskal-sze3 [...]-ga2-a-a [n szum2-x kab2]-ku5 [...]-im#? [...]-e2 [...] szum2#-sikil [n szum2] tu lu2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 145. 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 (P216299) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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