Position in chronology
Anonymous 270834
About this tablet
An everyday account tablet from the Akkadian period (about 2300 BCE), probably from Umma in southern Iraq, recording disbursements of beer and bread. Jugs of beer and baskets go out to named individuals — including a woman, Geme-Ašgi, and a man with an Akkadian name, Bilatum — while measured quantities of emmer-flour and barley bread go to others. It is the routine paperwork of an ancient household or institution feeding its people, and the mix of Sumerian and Akkadian names captures the bilingual world of Sargonic Mesopotamia.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a distribution list for drink and food. Three jugs of beer went to Tišida; two jugs of ḫalḫal-beer were issued; then three people — Geme-Ašgi, Bilatum, and Dudaga — each received two jugs of beer and one basket. Lul-e got three drinking jars. On the food side: four ban (roughly 40 liters) of bread made from emmer flour and barley, five ban and five more barley loaves (the recipients' names are broken away), fifteen loaves for Lu-ag, and six loaves for Ur-..., whose name is lost. The reverse carries a few further lines, likely totals, that are too encrusted to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 1. 3 jugs of beer: Tišida(?); 2. 2 (jugs of) beer: ḫalḫal-beer; 3. 2 (jugs of) beer, 1 basket: Geme-Ašgi; 4. 2(?) (jugs of) beer, 1 basket: Bilatum; 5. 2 (jugs of) beer, 1 basket: Dudaga(?); 6. 3 drinking jars: Lul-e; 7. 4 ban of bread of emmer flour, barley [...]; 8. 5 ban (and) 5 breads of barley [...]; 9. 15 breads: Lu-ag(?); 10. 6 breads: Ur-[...].
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
3(disz) kasz dug ti?-szi-da#? 2(disz) kasz hal-hal-al 2(disz) kasz 1(disz) ga2 geme2-aszgi 2(disz)#? kasz 1(disz) ga2# bi-la-tum 2(disz)# kasz 1(disz) ga2 du-da-ga#? 3(disz) dug nag lul-e 4(ban2) ninda zi3 ziz2 sze [...] 5(ban2) 5(disz) ninda sze [...] 1(u)# 5(disz) ninda lu2-ag2#? 6(disz) ninda ur-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Anonymous 270834. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: private: anonymous, unlocated (P270834) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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