Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 271
About this tablet
This is a small administrative memorandum from Adab dating to the Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly the 23rd century BCE. It tracks metal objects — two 'šallatum' items weighing one mina together, plus a separate tool called an 'ešmunsub' — that passed through the hands of a man named Dadi, identified as a seal-cutter (a gem- or stone-engraving craftsman). Such texts are the everyday bookkeeping of ancient workshops: officials issued raw metal or tools to specialist artisans and recorded when the goods were received and later returned, so that nothing precious went missing.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two šallatum-items, weighing one mina (about half a kilogram) together, and one ešmunsub-tool were issued. Dadi took charge of them and received them; they were later returned. Dadi is identified by his craft: he is a seal-cutter, a stone- or gem-engraver. This looks like a routine workshop receipt tracking metal handed out to and then returned by a craftsman.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 šallatum-objects, their weight: 1 mina; 1 ešmunsub(-object) (sign corrected from EREN), Dadi — received; returned (to hand); (the) seal-cutter.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
2(asz@c) szal#-la-tum ki#-la2#-bi# 1(disz) ma-na 1(asz@c) esz2-munsub#!(EREN) da#-di3# szu ba-ti# szu#-[a] gi4-a# bur#-gul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 271. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CL 122 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472571). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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