Position in chronology
OSP 2, 175
About this tablet
A small administrative receipt from Nippur in southern Iraq, dating to the Old Akkadian period (roughly 2300–2200 BCE). It records two issues of garlic or onions — a hundred bundles connected with a boat, and a smaller measured quantity — handed over under the eye of a named official. The last lines name the people involved, including a man identified only as the brother of the chief administrator, who acted as the responsible supervisor. It is the kind of everyday paperwork by which Mesopotamian institutions tracked foodstuffs moving through their stores and onto boats.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A hundred bundles of garlic were issued for the boat, in year one (or so the short note seems to say); they were released from stock. Separately, one barig (about 60 liters) of garlic went out, with Ur-šerda and KU-kuge as the parties named for it. Lugal-nig-be-du, brother of the chief administrator, served as the official responsible for the transaction.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 1 gešʾu 40 (= 100) bundles of garlic/onions, 2. (for) the boat; 1 (year?) — mu(?), 3. drawn out (disbursed). 4. 1 barig of garlic/onions: 5. Ur-šerda, 6. KU-kuge (Kù-kù-ge), 7. Lugal-nig-be-du, 8. brother of the šabra (chief administrator), 9. (was) the commissioner (maškim) for it.
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
1(gesz2) 4(u) szum2 sa ma2 1(disz@t) mu al-zi 1(barig@c) szum2 ur-szer7-da KU-ku3-ge lugal-nig2-be-du10 szesz szabra maszkim3-bi
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 175. 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 (P216329) — 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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