Position in chronology
LB 0089
About this tablet
An everyday brewery-office account from Girsu in southern Iraq, written during the Akkadian period (around 2300 BCE). A scribe records jars of beer in two grades — 'fine' and 'ordinary' — issued partly as the institution's regular standing delivery and partly to named individuals, plus a few containers of a dairy product. The closing lines book the whole lot as a formal expenditure on a specific day of the month called 'Malt-eating', itself a brewing-calendar name. Beer was the staple drink and a standard medium of rations in Mesopotamia, and small dockets like this were the receipts of that system.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a daily ledger entry for beer going out of the storehouse. About five jars of premium beer and sixteen of standard beer went out as the regular scheduled delivery. Rigea received two jars of the good stuff; one fine jar and one plain one went to 'the gate' (perhaps the gate personnel); Lu-geš-KALAM got a jug plus six liters of ordinary beer; and U-u took four jars of fine beer along with three containers of cream or a similar dairy product. The clerk then closed the account: expenditure booked on (probably) the 15th day of the month of Malt-eating.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 5(?) (jars of) fine beer, 2. 16 (jars of) ordinary beer: 3. it is the regular delivery (sa₂-du₁₁); 4. 2 (jars of) fine beer: 5. Rigea; 6. 1 (jar of) fine beer, 7. 1 (jar of) beer: 8. the gate(?) (ka₂-me?); 9. 1 jug (and) 6 sila of ordinary beer: 10. Lu-geš-KALAM(?); 11. 4(?) (jars of) fine beer, 12. 3 (vessels of) cream [...]: 13. U-u; 14. booked expenditure (zi-ga). The 15th(?) [day]; 15. month: "Malt-eating" (munu₄-gu₇).
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
5(asz@c)? kasz sag10 1(u@c) 6(asz@c) kasz du sa2-du11-am3 2(asz@c) kasz sag10 ri-ge-a 1(asz@c) kasz sag10 1(asz@c) kasz ka2-me? 1(asz@c) dug 6(disz) sila3 kasz du lu2-gesz-KALAM? 4(asz@c)#? kasz sag10 3(asz@c) gara2 [x] u2-u2 zi-ga 1(u) 5(disz)#? [u4] iti munu4-gu7
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — LB 0089. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: de Liagre Böhl Collection, Netherlands Institute for the Near East, Leiden, Holland (P388646) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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