Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 238
About this tablet
This is a small Old Akkadian-period economic record from Adab (modern Bismaya), listing disbursements of silver handled by an official or agent named Dada. The silver moves to a temple household connected with the išib-priest of the god Enki, to an unnamed institution, and to a merchant named Ur-Inanna in connection with some wooden object, possibly a pole or spear. The closing line seems to note that this silver came from a specific storage container that had been set aside — a small but vivid glimpse of how precious metal moved through a Sumerian city's temple and merchant economy nearly 4,300 years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Dada disbursed one shekel of silver connected to the household of the išib-priest of Enki and to another household (the exact commodity or purpose is unclear), earmarked for an official called the sagšu. A further five shekels of silver were recorded for some purpose that is now lost to a break in the tablet. Dada also gave two shekels of silver to the merchant Ur-Inanna, apparently tied to a long wooden pole or spear. A closing note states that this silver was the property of, or came from, a storage container that had been set aside — essentially a note on the source of the funds.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 shekel of silver — (for) the house of the išib-priest of Enki, the house of the ...-thing, for the sagšu (official): Dada gave (it) to him. 5 shekels of silver — [...]-kam (broken; destination or purpose lost). 2 shekels of silver — (for) Ur-Inanna, the merchant, for the gu2 of the long-wood (pole/spear): Dada gave (it) to him. The silver (is) the property of the za-ha-container, (that had been) placed/deposited.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(disz)# ku3 gin2 e2#? iszib en-ki e2#? nig2-x-kam sagszu#-sze3 da#-da# e#-na#-szum2 5(disz)# ku3 gin2 [...]-kam 2(disz)# ku3 gin2# ur-inanna dam-gar3 gu2 gesz-gid2-da-sze3 da-da e-na-szum2 ku3 nig2 za-ha dag-ga-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 238. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CL 096 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472538). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-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.
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.