Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

BuB 2, 13

~2270 BCE·Akkadian Empire·P214937

About this tablet

A short inventory from the Old Akkadian period (about 2300–2150 BCE), listing a set of valuables described as a gift from one man. It records bronze vessels, a small amount of gold and an item connected with a cupbearer, the kind of prestige objects exchanged among officials and elites. The donor's title is broken, but it may have been a governor's. The tablet is now in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, and where it was found is not known.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

Items given: one bronze zaḫum-vessel, three bronze mašlum-bowls, two bronze objects of the kind called šu, and four shekels of gold. There is also one barran connected with the cupbearer. All of this is a gift from Il-ibbi, whose title begins with PA-; the rest of that title is broken off.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine
Medium confidence
1 bronze zaḫum-vessel; 3 bronze mašlum-bowls; 2 bronze šu-objects; 4 shekels of gold; 1 barran, (of/for the) cupbearer; gift of Il-ibbi (DINGIR-i-bí), PA-[x].
Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

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

1(asz@c) uruda zabar za-hum
3(asz@c) uruda zabar ma-sza4-lum#
2(asz@c) uruda zabar szu
4(asz@c) gin2 ku3-sig17
1(asz@c) bar-ra-an sagi
nig2-ba dingir-i-bi3 PA#-[x]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — BuB 2, 13. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P214937) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).

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