Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 186
About this tablet
This is a wool-accounting tablet from Adab, a city in southern Mesopotamia, dating to the Akkadian period (roughly 2300–2100 BCE). It records quantities of carded (combed) wool, measured in minas, credited or owed against five named individuals — most bearing names formed with the element 'Nin' ('lady'), suggesting they were women, possibly weavers or dependents attached to a textile workshop. The scribe totals the entries and flags the sum as an outstanding balance or shortfall, then dates the record to the month called Šugar — the everyday bookkeeping of an institutional wool operation, the kind of industry that employed large numbers of women in early Mesopotamian cities.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This record tracks wool owed to (or by) five people: Mama-ummi gets 8 minas, Nin-nigzu gets 14, Aštar gets just under 10 minas, Tania gets just under 13 minas, and Nin-adgal gets 10. Altogether that comes to 54 and a half minas of carded wool. The tablet notes this total as a balance still outstanding — money or goods not yet settled — and identifies the whole record as belonging to the wool account, filed under the month of Šugar.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine8 minas of carded wool: Mama-ummi. 14 (minas): Nin-nigzu. 10 minas less 1/3 (shekel): Aštar. 13 minas less 10 shekels: Tania. 10 (minas): Nin-adgal. Total: 54 1/2 minas of carded wool. Outstanding balance (deficit). It is from the wool account. Month: Šugar.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
8(disz) siki# mug# ma-na ma-ma-um-mi# 1(u) 4(disz) nin-nig2-zu# 1(u)# la2 1/3(asz@c) asz-dar# 1(u) 3(disz) ma-na# la2 1(u) gin2 ta2-ni2-[a] 1(u) nin#-ad2#-[gal] szunigin 5(u@c) 4(asz@c) 1/2(asz@c) siki mug ma-na la2-ia3 ki siki-ka-kam iti szu-gar
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 186. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CL 334 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472486). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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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.