Position in chronology
OSP 2, 180
About this tablet
A small account tablet from Nippur in the Sargonic (Old Akkadian) period, roughly 2300–2200 BCE, recording quantities of garlic measured in the large 'lidga' unit and assigned to a handful of named men. The recipients include a field-surveyor, a 'man of Zaqtum' and a goat-herder, giving a glimpse of how a Nippur institution distributed a staple foodstuff to its working personnel. Garlic was a basic ration item in Mesopotamia, and documents like this are the ordinary paperwork behind its storage and issue.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a garlic ledger. The opening entry gives a large quantity — 3 gur, 1 barig, 3 ban and 5 sila, measured by the lidga standard — set against the name Lugal-itida. Next comes an entry, its figure now lost, for Ur-ki, the surveyor who measures fields. Ur-kidma gets 2 barig and 3 ban; Ku, the man from Zaqtum, gets 1 gur and 2 ban; a man whose name ends in -da gets about 1 barig; Lugal-kar gets 1 barig and 3 ban; and Lugal-gišu, who herds the maš-bar-du goats, gets 4 ban and 5 sila. In short, a list of who received how much garlic.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 3 gur 1 barig 3 ban 5 sila of garlic, (measured by the) lidga — 2. Lugal-itida; 3. [...] Ur-ki, the field-surveyor; 4. 2 barig 3 ban: Ur-kidma; 5. 1 gur 2 ban: Ku, 6. the man of Zaqtum; 7. 1 barig(?): [x]-da; 8. 1 barig 3 ban: Lugal-kar; 9. 4 ban 5 sila: Lugal-gi(?)-šu(?), 10. shepherd of the maš-bar-du goats.
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
3(asz) 1(barig) 3(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 szum2 lid2-ga lugal-iti-da [...] ur-ki lu2-GAN2-gid2 2(barig) 3(ban2) ur-kid2-ma 1(asz) 2(ban2) ku3 lu2 zaq-tum 1(barig)? x-da 1(barig) 3(ban2) lugal-kar 4(ban2) 5(disz) sila3 lugal-gi7?-szu? sipa masz2-bar-du8
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 180. 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 (P216334) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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