Position in chronology
OSP 2, 186
About this tablet
A small administrative-legal note from Nippur in the Sargonic (Old Akkadian) period, around 2300 BCE, recording a silver transaction. A man named Ḫesa, apparently with a partner, used silver to buy oil from a workshop; a twelfth instalment of silver is then weighed out to the parties by Ur-Enlila, and an official called a sukkal (envoy or messenger) is named at the end, probably as witness. It is a glimpse of the ordinary credit and purchase bookkeeping of a Sumerian city under Akkadian rule, with payments tracked in numbered instalments.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet opens with a sum of silver, so many minas, but the next line is too damaged to read. A third of a unit of silver is credited to Ḫesa, who together with E-zu-ga-kul-la bought oil at the workshop. Then, for the twelfth instalment, Ur-Enlila weighed out silver to Ḫesa — a house-born slave — and his partner, in the house of some institution whose name is partly broken. The record closes with the name of Ur-Enkika, the sukkal (envoy), presumably present as witness.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. [n] mina(s) [of silver] 2. [......] ... ... ... 3. 1/3 (shekel/mina) — Ḫesa 4. (and/of) E-zu-ga-kul-la 5. oil of the workshop 6. he bought there for him. 7. For the 12th (instalment/time), 8. Ḫesa, the house-born (slave), 9. together with him, 10. Ur-Enlila 11. in the house of ... 12. weighed out to them. 13. [Ur]-Enkika, the envoy (sukkal).
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 ku3] ma-na [...] x x x 1/3(disz) he2-sa6-e e3-zu-ga-kul-la i3 gesz-kin-ti-ka mu-na-ni-sa10 1(u) 2(disz@t)-kam-ma-sze3 he2-sa6 ama-tu bi-da ur-en-lil2-la2-ke4 e2 nig2-x-ka in-ne-la2 [ur]-en-ki-ka sukkal
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 186. 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 (P216339) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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