Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 072
About this tablet
An Akkadian-period administrative tablet from Adab in southern Iraq, recording two consecutive deliveries of grapes or wine — sorted by quality into large-grade and small-grade lots — destined for the new palace. The scribe tallies each batch in turn, labels them 'first' and 'second,' then gives grand totals before noting the destination and the month. Such records are the everyday bookkeeping of Mesopotamian palace provisioning, around 2300–2150 BCE, showing how scribes tracked even agricultural produce in two quality tiers.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two shipments of grapes arrived at the new palace. First delivery: 93 large-grade and 130 small-grade. Second delivery: 71 large-grade and 138 small-grade. Final tallies: 164 large-grade and 208 small-grade grapes were brought in. The transaction is dated to the month of Šu-gar. (The stated total of 208 small-grade grapes is 60 short of the sum of the two individual batches — 130 + 138 = 268 — suggesting a scribal counting error of one sexagesimal unit.)
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine93 large grapes 130 small grapes — first [delivery] 71 large grapes 138 small grapes — second [delivery] Grand total: 164# large grapes Grand total: 208 small grapes [Into the] new palace delivered Month of Šu-gar
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(gesz2@c) 3(u@c) 3(asz@c) gesztin gal-gal 2(gesz2@c) 1(u@c) gesztin tur-tur a-ra2 1(disz@t)-kam 1(gesz2@c) 1(u@c) 1(asz@c) gesztin gal-gal 2(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) la2 2(asz@c) gesztin tur-tur a-ra2 2(disz@t)-kam szunigin 2(gesz2@c) 4(u@c) 4(asz@c)# gesztin gal szunigin 3(gesz2@c) 3(u@c) la2 2(asz@c) gesztin tur-tur e2#-gal gibil ba-kux(KWU636) iti# szu-gar
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 072. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CL 048 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P472372). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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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.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.