Position in chronology
LB 0214
About this tablet
A small administrative docket from the Old Akkadian period (c. 2350–2200 BCE), recording three identical issues of beer and bread — about five liters of each per entry. The disbursements are tied to cultic occasions: a water-libation ceremony for the household (a rite often performed for deceased family members) and a prayer observance, with one portion going to someone who had traveled from the holy city of Nippur. Dated simply to the 'extra month,' the intercalary month inserted to keep the lunar calendar aligned with the seasons, it shows the everyday overlap of accounting and religion in Mesopotamian life.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Issued: 5 liters of beer and 5 liters of bread; another 5 liters of beer and 5 of bread for the water-libation ceremony of the house; and a further 5 liters of beer and 5 of bread for the prayer rite, given to the person who came from Nippur. Booked in the intercalary month — the extra month added that year to the calendar. In short, three matching rations of beer and bread, paid out for religious observances and a traveler from Nippur.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 5 sila of beer, 2. 5 sila of bread; 3. 5 sila of beer, 4. 5 sila of bread, 5. for the water-libation of the house; 6. 5 sila of beer, 7. 5 sila of bread, 8. (for) the prayer-rite [...], 9. (for the one) who came from Nippur. 10. Intercalary month.
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(disz) sila3 kasz 5(disz) sila3 ninda 5(disz) sila3 kasz 5(disz) sila3 ninda mu# a-bala e2 5(disz) sila3 kasz 5(disz) sila3 ninda# szu12-da [x?] nibru-ta gen-na# iti diri
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC) ?) — LB 0214. 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 (P388749) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.