Position in chronology
AO 31388
About this tablet
A small administrative docket from Mesopotamia listing beer handed out in jars to a handful of named individuals — among them a gala, a lamentation-priest or cult singer, and men called Lugal-ma-[...], Da-da and Lugal-bi. Four jars for the first two recipients, three for the next two. This is the most ordinary kind of ancient bookkeeping: beer was both a staple food and a form of wage, and a scribe recorded who got how much so the household's stores could be balanced. The first name is broken away, and nothing survives to tell us which institution issued the drink or on what occasion.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A short disbursement list of beer. The first recipient's name is damaged beyond recovery; he received four jars. A gala-priest also received four. Lugal-ma-[...] and Da-da were each allotted three jars, and the list closes with Lugal-bi. Nothing else survives — no date, no issuing office, no total — just the quantities and the people who took them.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. Da-[...]-...-[...] 2. 4 jars of beer 3. gala(-priest) 4. 4 jars of beer 5. Lugal-ma-[...] 6. 3 jars of beer 7. Da-da 8. 3 jars of beer 9. Lugal-bi
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
da#?-[x?]-x-[x?] 4(asz@c) kasz dug gala# 4(asz@c) kasz dug lugal-ma2#?-[x] 3(asz@c) kasz dug da-da# 3(asz@c) kasz dug lugal#-bi#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — AO 31388. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P494605) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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