Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 059
About this tablet
A wool distribution record from Adab (modern Bismaya, southern Iraq), dating to the Akkadian period, roughly 2334–2154 BCE. The tablet lists four allocations of wool — to a person named Tania, a medium-grade category, and two named individuals, Nin-nigu-zu and Me-nigin-ta — totaling 54 minas (just under one talent), drawn from the city's wool-workers and released through an official named Giri-gena on behalf of the governor. This is the routine administrative paperwork of an imperial textile economy: the Akkadian state closely managed wool as a strategic commodity, and records like this tracked every mina through the system. The internal arithmetic (20 + 20 + 7 + 7 = 54 minas = 1 talent minus 6) checks out perfectly, a small testament to the scribe's precision.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The wool-workers distributed a total of 54 minas of wool — one full talent short by six minas. The breakdown: 20 minas to Tania, 20 minas of medium-grade wool, 7 minas to Nin-nigu-zu, and 7 minas to Me-nigin-ta. The responsible official was Giri-gena, acting on behalf of the governor. The transaction took place in the month of Še-sag-kal-ga.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine20 minas of wool — Tania; 20 (minas), medium-grade; 7 (minas) — Nin-nigu-zu; 7 (minas) — Me-nigin-ta. Total: 1 talent of wool, lacking 6 minas. The wool-workers gave it to them. Via Giri-gena, the governor's (official). Month: Še-sag-kal-ga.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
2(u) siki ma#-[na] ta2-ni2-a 2(u) nig2-banda3 7(disz) nin-nig2-zu 7(disz) me-nigin3-ta szunigin 1(asz@c) siki gu2 la2 6(disz) ma-na ki-siki-ke4-ne e-ne-szum2 giri3-gen-na ensi2#-kam# iti sze#-sag-kal#-ga#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 059. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CL 016 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472359). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
Related tablets
Related sources
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.