Position in chronology
OSP 2, 071
About this tablet
A small legal-economic tablet from Nippur in southern Iraq, dating to the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, around 2300 BCE. It records a debt obligation: a soldier named Lugal-itida acknowledges owing silver, and then barley, in connection with a goldsmith who happens to bear the same name, before three named witnesses. Documents like this show how ordinary people — a soldier, a craftsman — formalised credit and liability in writing, using a stock phrase, 'to place the neck', for taking on a debt.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a record of debts. Lugal-itida the soldier has taken on an obligation toward Lugal-itida the goldsmith for eleven shekels of silver, less a small fraction. He has also, in a second transaction, taken on an obligation for five lidga of barley. The witnesses to this are Lugal-ennu, Ur-Šulpa'e, and Ur-li (the rest of his name is lost). These men are the witnesses to the matter.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 11 shekels of silver less 1/[n (shekel)], 2. to Lugal-itida 3. the goldsmith, 4. Lugal-itida 5. the soldier 6. has placed (as an) obligation (lit. 'placed the neck'). 7. 5 lidga of barley, 8. for the second time, 9. he has placed (as an) obligation. 10. Lugal-ennu, 11. Ur-<Šul>pa'e, 12. Ur-li [...] 13. — they are its witnesses.
Our translation engine — Fable 5.1. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(u@c) 1(asz@c) ku3 gin2# la2 igi#-[n-gal2] lugal-iti-da# ku3-dim2-ra lugal-iti-da aga3-us2-e gu2 i3-ni-gar 5(asz@c) sze lid2-ga 2(disz@t)-kam-ma-sze3 gu2 i3-ni-gar lugal-en-nu ur-<szul>-pa-e3# ur-li [...] lu2-ki-inim#-[ma]-bi3-[me]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — OSP 2, 071. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P216225) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5-1 (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.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.
The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.