Position in chronology
OSP 2, 146
About this tablet
An administrative account from Nippur in the Old Akkadian period (c. 2300–2200 BCE), recording quantities of garlic and onions — counted in bundles and in capacity measures — delivered by or charged to several named men. After each entry a 'commissioner' (maškim) is named as the official responsible for that transaction, and the tablet closes with running totals. It is a glimpse of how the temple or palace administration at Nippur tracked even humble vegetable supplies, with a chain of accountability built into every line.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The start is lost. Someone brought a consignment, apparently for a man described as 'his shepherd'; Inim-mani is the official responsible. Then the entries: Lugal-kas-e, 60 bundles, overseen by He-sa; Lu-uzga, 40 bundles, overseen by Inim-mani; Ur-gu of Lu-lila, 20 bundles, overseen by He-sa. One more entry is broken, with Ur-tir as the responsible official. The totals: 960 bundles of crushed garlic, 2 barig (roughly 120 liters) of crushed garlic, and an unreadable number of bundles of sikil-onions.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(Beginning destroyed) 1. [...] he brought (it) there. 2. [...] for? the man, his shepherd. 3. Inim-[mani?] (is) its commissioner. 4. 60? (bundles) — Lugal-kas-e; 5. He-sa (is) its commissioner. 6. 40 (bundles) — Lu-uzga; 7. Inim-mani (is) its commissioner. 8. 20 (bundles) — Ur-gu (of/for) Lu-lila; 9. [He]-sa (is) its commissioner. 10. [...] 11. [Ur]-tir (is) commissioner. 12. [Total:] 960 [bundles] of crushed(?) garlic; 13. total: 2 barig of crushed(?) garlic; 14. [total: n bundles of] sikil-onions.
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
[...] i3-na-de6 [...] lu2#? sipa-ni-se3? inim#-[ma-ni?] maszkim-bi 1(gesz2)? lugal-kas4-e he2#-sa6# maszkim-bi 4(u@c) lu2-uz-ga inim-ma-ni maszkim-bi 2(u) ur-gu lu-lil-la [he2]-sa6# maszkim-bi [...] [ur]-tir# maszkim [szunigin] 1(gesz'u@c) 6(gesz2@c) [szum2] gaz sa szunigin 2(barig@c) szum2 gaz [szunigin n szum2]-sikil sa
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 146. 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 (P216300) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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