Position in chronology
OSP 2, 152
About this tablet
A small administrative account from Nippur in the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly 2300–2200 BCE. It records bundles of onions — including the variety called šum-sikil, a leek- or shallot-like allium — allotted to or received from named individuals, several of them scribes and one apparently a cupbearer. It is a glimpse of the everyday vegetable economy of a major Sumerian temple city, where even garden produce was counted out in bundles and booked against people's names.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a list of onion bundles tied to specific people. A certain number of bundles of šum-sikil onions went to KA-ku the scribe; 150 bundles to Nita-edina; 40 bundles of ordinary onions to Ur-šubur, who seems to be a cupbearer. Then come more entries whose numbers are lost: so many bundles of onions for another scribe, so many bundles of šum-sikil for yet another scribe, and ten-odd bundles of šum-sikil for someone whose name ends in -si. The top of the tablet and parts of several names are broken away.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [n bundles of š]um-sikil onions: 2. KA-ku, 3. the scribe. 4. [60] + 90 (= 150) bundles of šum-sikil onions: 5. Nita-edina. 6. 40 bundles of onions: 7. Ur-šubur(?), 8. the cupbearer(?). 9. [...] bundles of onions: 10. [...], the scribe. 11. [n bundles of š]um-sikil onions: 12. [...], the scribe. 13. 10 [+ n bundles of š]um-sikil onions: 14. [...]-si.
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 sa] KA-ku3 dub-sar [1(gesz2)] 1(gesz2) 3(u) szum2-sikil sa nita-edin-na 4(u) szum2 sa ur-szubur? sagi? [...] szum2# sa [...] dub-sar [n szum2]-sikil# sa [...] dub-sar 1(u) [n szum2]-sikil# sa [...]-si
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 152. 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 (P216306) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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