Position in chronology
BIN 08, 130
About this tablet
This is a barley ration list from the Old Akkadian period (about 2300–2150 BCE), during the empire founded by Sargon of Akkad. The findspot is not known. It names eight fishermen who each receive one barig of barley a month, then works out the team's monthly and ten-month totals, and ends with a receipt by a man named Šuna. Small details bring the crew to life. One member is described as blind. Another is a lamentation priest. Two men share the name KA-ku, and the scribe tells them apart as 'the blind one' and 'the second'.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Monthly barley rations for a crew of fishermen. Each man gets one barig: [someone whose name ends in] -na (the start of the line is damaged), E'e, Ur-šerda, Ur-pisan, Šeš-lu, KA-ku (the blind one), the lamentation priest, and another man also called KA-ku. That makes eight fishermen. Together they draw 1 gur 3 barig of barley a month. Over ten months that comes to 16 gur, and Šuna has received it.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse / Reverse (no side divisions are marked in the source): 1. [1 barig (?) ...]-na; 2. 1 barig: E'e; 3. 1 barig: Ur-šerda; 4. 1 barig: Ur-pisan; 5. 1 barig: Šeš-lu; 6. 1 barig: KA-ku, the blind man; 7. 1 barig: the lamentation priest (gala); 8. 1 barig: KA-ku, the second (i.e. a second man of the same name); 9. Total: 8 fishermen. 10. Their barley ration: 1 gur 3 barig, 11. for 1 month. 12. 16 gur of barley for 10 months. 13. Šuna received (it).
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
[n ...]-na 1(barig@c) e2-e 1(barig@c) ur-szer7-da 1(barig@c) ur-pisan 1(barig@c) szesz-lu2* 1(barig@c) KA-ku3 _igi-nu-tuku*_ 1(barig@c) gala* 1(barig@c) KA-ku3 _min_ _szunigin 8(asz@c) szu#*-ku6__ _sze-ba-bi_ 1(asz@c) 3(barig@c)# _gur_ szu 1(disz) _iti_ 1(u@c) 6(asz@c) _sze gur_ szu 1(u) _iti_ szu-na im-hur
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — BIN 08, 130. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Nies Babylonian Collection, Yale Babylonian Collection, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (P212676) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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