Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 306
About this tablet
This small clay tablet from Adab (ancient Bismaya) is a Sargonic-period (Old Akkadian) 'letter-order' — a terse administrative message rather than a narrative letter. A man named Lugal-amu dictates instructions to a subordinate identified as a field-surveyor, son of Ama-tura, telling him to hand over specified goods — reed items, containers, and measured quantities — to the bearer of the tablet. Texts like this were the everyday machinery of Sargonic estate and temple administration: short, formulaic orders authorizing the transfer of commodities, closed with the name of a witness or overseer.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a note from Lugal-amu, instructing his agent — the field-surveyor, son of Ama-tura — to hand over certain goods: some reed-related items and a claw-marked (or notched) item, plus one unit of 'mud' commodity, are to be given to the bearer. Two units of šumti are to be measured out in gurdub-vessels, three ban2 in quantity. The transaction is recorded before (or witnessed by) a man named Hamunidu. Several of the commodity words are damaged or obscure, so the exact goods being moved can't be pinned down precisely, but the overall shape — a short administrative order authorizing a delivery — is clear.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineLugal-amu — (this is) the message. His name(sake)/identification — to the field-surveyor (lu2-eš2-gan2-gid2), son of Ama-tura, speak! [...] its/his claw(?)-mark (umbin) — [1(?)] gi-muš(-reed?) [...] claw(?)-mark (umbin), and 1 (unit) mud — let him give (it) to you! 2 (units) šumti, (in) gurdub-vessel(s), 3 ban2. Before/witness: Ha-mu-ni-du8.
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
lugal-a-mu na-be2-a mu-ni lu2-esz2-GAN2-gid2 dumu ama-tu-ra u3-na-du11 [x] umbinx(|UMBINxMASZ|)-na [1(asz@c)? ]gi-musz [x x] umbinx(|UMBINxMASZ|)# u3 1(asz@c) mud ha-mu-ra-szum2-mu 2(asz@c) szum2-ti gurdub 3(ban2@c) igi ha-mu-ni-du8
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 306. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CL 203 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472606). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.