Position in chronology
OSP 2, 177
About this tablet
A small administrative receipt from Nippur in southern Iraq, dating to the Old Akkadian period (roughly 2300–2200 BCE). It records lots of onions — some measured by volume, some counted in bundles — taken out of store by named individuals: a singer attached to a household called 'the house of the Lady', and two merchants. Onions were a staple of the Mesopotamian diet, and tablets like this show how an institution tracked who had drawn produce from its stock, including tradesmen who presumably sold it on.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
An unknown quantity of onions came from Ur-kidma, and 2 barig (about 120 liters) came from Lugal-teshmu; Lugal-GAN-zi, the singer of the House of the Lady, took them. Then 180 bundles of crushed onions were taken by the merchant Lul-gu-ak, and another 180 bundles of crushed onions by a second merchant whose name is damaged, ending in '-esi'; the final line recording his withdrawal is lost but can be restored from the pattern. The beginning of the tablet is broken.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [......] onions, 2. from Ur-kidma; 3. 2 barig, from Lugal-teszmu — 4. Lugal-GAN2-zi, 5. the singer of the house of the Lady (E-nin), 6. took (them) away. 7. 180 (3 sixties) bundles of crushed onions: 8. Lul-gu-ak, 9. the merchant, took (them) away. 10. 180 (3 sixties) bundles of crushed onions: 11. ... [...]-esi, the merchant(?), 12. [took (them) away].
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
[...] szum2 ki ur-kid2-ma-ta 2(barig@c) ki lugal-tesz2-mu-ta lugal-GAN2-zi nar e2-nin-ke4 ba-de6 3(gesz2) szum2 gaz sa lul-gu-ak dam-gar3 ba-de6 3(gesz2) szum2 gaz sa x [...]-e-si dam-gar3#? [ba-de6]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 177. 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 (P216331) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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