Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 013
About this tablet
A small administrative livestock record from the Akkadian Empire period (roughly 2334–2154 BCE), listing goats and at least one male sheep distributed to or received from a group of named individuals. The tablet's origin is uncertain, but the mix of Sumerian personal names (Sag-zi, Ur-tir, Ka-ku3) and what appears to be an Akkadian theophoric name (Ili-ili, 'my gods') is characteristic of that bilingual era. Each entry follows a simple formula — animal count, then a name — and the final person is identified by his father's name, a common Akkadian bureaucratic practice. Though small and fragmentary, it is a typical example of the temple or palace accountancy that kept livestock herds under tight institutional control.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a short livestock ledger. An uncertain number of goats are attributed to Sag-zi. One goat goes to Ili-ili. Another uncertain number of goats go to someone whose name is only partially legible, ending in '-ba.' One goat is recorded for Ur-tir. Finally, one male sheep is recorded for Ka-ku3, son of Ur-something — his father's name is broken away at the end. The rest of the tablet, if there was more, is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[n] goat(s) — Sag-zi; 1 goat — Ili-ili; [n] goat(s) — [...]-ba; 1 goat — Ur-tir; 1 male sheep — Ka-ku3, son of Ur-[...]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. 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
[n] masz2 sag-zi 1(asz@c) masz2 i3-li2-li2 [n] masz2 [...]-ba#? 1(asz@c) masz2# ur-tir 1(asz@c) udu-nita ka-ku3 dumu ur-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 013. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CL 084 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from uncertain (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472313). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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Related sources
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