Position in chronology
Adab 0865
About this tablet
A small account of flour spent on religious offerings, written at the city of Adab in southern Iraq during the Akkadian period (c. 2300–2150 BCE). It lists regular offerings of barley flour and a finer flour set aside for a festival of the orchards and for the Ne-Ne-gar feast, then gives the totals and says the flour was paid out on orders. A man named Igizi is linked to the entries. Records like this show how temple and palace offices kept track of food for the gods, down to half a sila.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a record of flour paid out for offerings. For the regular offerings: about 2 gur, 1 barig, 2 ban and half a sila of barley flour. For the orchard festival: 3 ban minus 2 sila of a finer barley flour. For the Ne-Ne-gar festival: 1½ sila of bread and flour (part of this line is broken), with Igizi responsible. Totals: 2 gur, 1 barig and 4 sila of barley flour for the regular offerings, and 4 ban and 4 sila of the finer flour. All of it was paid out on orders, in the month of Dukug (the beginning of the month name is lost).
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse: [2 gur] 1 barig 2 ban 1/2 sila (sila) of dabin-flour, regular offerings; 3 ban minus 2 sila of zi-dabin-flour — for the festival of the orchard. [1] 1/2 sila of bread [...] zi-dabin-flour — (for the) Ne-Ne-gar (festival/month); Igizi (in charge). Reverse: [Total]: 2 gur 1 barig 4 sila of dabin-flour, regular offerings; [total]: 4 ban 4 sila of zi-dabin-flour. Expended by order. [Month: Du]kug.
Our translation engine — Opus 5. 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
[2(asz)] 1(barig) 2(ban2) 1/2(disz) sila3 sila3 dabin gur sa2-du11 3(ban2@c) la2 2(disz) sila3 zi3 dabin ezem nig2-kiri6 [1(disz)] 1/2(disz) sila3 ninda [...] zi3 dabin NE#-NE-gar igi#-zi [szunigin] 2(asz) 1(barig) 4(disz) sila3 dabin gur sa2-du11 [szunigin] 4(ban2@c) 4(disz) sila3 zi3 dabin zi#-ga inim-ma [iti du6]-ku3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Adab 0865. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P217552) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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