Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 082
About this tablet
An administrative tablet from the Akkadian period, probably from the ancient city of Adab in southern Iraq, recording disbursements of dates — one of the most important food commodities in Mesopotamian institutional life. The entries track quantities ranging from a single barig to several gur, distributed across a series of groups or individuals whose names are largely missing, either broken away or never inscribed. The grand total of 13 gur and 2 barig — several thousand liters by later-period reckoning — is registered under Gissu, son of Ur-Haia, presumably the responsible official or account-holder. Too damaged to reconstruct every line fully, this is nonetheless a textbook example of the close-grained numerical record-keeping that kept Mesopotamian institutions running.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records date allocations. The commodity is identified as dates at the top, and the entries that follow list disbursements of varying sizes — 3 barig to one unnamed group, 10-something groups receiving 2 barig, then blocks of 4 gur 2 barig, 3 gur 2 barig, 2 gur 2 barig, and so on, tapering down through barig-level amounts to a final entry of just 1 ban for what looks like eight individuals. The names of all recipients are blank or lost. The grand total comes to 13 gur and 2 barig of dates. The account is held by Gissu, son of Ur-Haia.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineDates: 1 gur [—] 3 barig 10 [—] 2 barig [—] 4 gur 2 barig [—] 3 gur 2 barig 4 [—] 2 gur 2 barig [x] [—] 1 gur 2 barig [x]+3 [—] 1 barig [x] [—] 3 ban [x] [—] 2 ban [8?] [—] 1 ban Total: 13 gur 2 barig Gissu, son of Ur-Ha[ia]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
zu2!(SAG)-lum 1(asz@c) () 3(barig@c) 1(u) 2(barig@c) () 4(asz) 2(barig@c) () 3(asz) 2(barig@c) 4(disz) () 2(asz) 2(barig@c) [n?] () 1(asz) 2(barig@c) [n?] 3(disz) () 1(barig@c) [n] () 3(ban2@c)#? [n] () 2(ban2@c)# 8(disz)#? () 1(ban2@c)# szunigin 1(u@c) 3(asz@c) 2(barig@c) gur gissu dumu ur-ha-[ia3]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 082. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CL 310 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472382). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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Related sources
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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.