Position in chronology
OSP 2, 161
About this tablet
A small Sargonic-period account from Nippur, about 2300–2200 BCE, listing amounts of garlic (or onions) assigned to a handful of named men — Kabku, Atu, Lu-saga. One entry is tied to the imperial capital Agade and to a journey someone made there or elsewhere, and the final line marks the whole lot as expended. It is a scrap of everyday provisioning paperwork from the heart of the first Mesopotamian empire, showing how even bundles of garlic were tracked by name and destination.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Four measures of garlic for Kabku and Atu. Three measures for Lu-saga. Six measures of something now lost, connected with Agade — the rest of that entry is broken. Two more measures, probably again for Lu-saga, issued when he travelled to a place whose name is damaged. All of this has been paid out and written off the books.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 4 (gur) of garlic — Kabku, 2. Atu; 3. 3 (gur) — Lu-saga; 4. 6 [......] 5. Agade [......]; 6. 2 (gur) — Lu-saga(?), 7. (when) he went to ...; 8. it has been expended.
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(asz@c) szum2 kab2-ku5 a-tu 3(asz@c) lu2-sa6 6(disz) [...] a-ga-de3[ ...] 2(asz@c) lu2-sa6? x-sze3 im-szi-gen-[na] al#-zi
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 161. 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 (P216315) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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Related sources
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