Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 020
About this tablet
An administrative delivery or disbursement record from Adab in central Mesopotamia, dating to roughly 2350–2100 BCE during the Akkadian (Sargonic) period. The tablet catalogs a silver ring (with its weight carefully noted), several grades of garment, fine oil, rope, and bitumen — goods associated with two named individuals, Bēlī-il-abā and Elīšta-kal, whose names are Semitic-Akkadian in form. The closing lines identify the ultimate destination as the king, framing this as a palace provisioning or royal gift-delivery record. Tablets like this one are the everyday administrative tissue of Mesopotamian palace economies: they track how goods moved between officials and the royal household under the rotating duty system known as the bala.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records the delivery of several items: a silver ring weighing one-third of a mina, a naš-pāru cloth, one high-quality finished garment for the duty rotation, one weaver's garment for the same rotation, two sila of fine oil along with rope, and a measure of bitumen for the building. All of these were associated with a man named Bēlī-il-abā. A further weaver's garment for the duty rotation was brought by Elīšta-kal, described as a lu2-ku official. Together these gleaming goods were delivered to the king.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 silver ring [hu-la] — its weight: 1/3 mina 1 naš-pāru garment 1 first-quality, fully finished garment — (for the) bala rotation 1 weaver's garment — (for the) bala rotation 1 (vessel of) fine oil — 2 sila; (1) rope 1 (unit of) bitumen — for the house (for / by) Bēlī-il-abā 1 weaver's garment — (for the) bala rotation (for / by) Elīšta-kal lu2-ku (official) [the] gleaming ornament(s) [of / for] the king they brought [it/them]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(asz@c) ku3 har# hu#-la# ki-la2-bi 1/3(asz@c) 1(asz@c) tug2 na-asz2-pa2-ru 1(asz@c) tug2 saga szu du7-a bala 1(asz@c) tug2 usz-bar bala 1(asz@c) i3 du10-ga saman4 2(disz) sila3 1(asz@c) esir5 e2-ba be-li2-il3-a-ba4 1(asz@c) tug2 usz-bar bala e-li-isz-ta2-kal2 lu2-ku nig2-mul-na lugal-[a] mu-de6#-[esz2?]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 020. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CL 199 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472320). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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