Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 054
About this tablet
An administrative dispatch record from the city of Adab (in modern Iraq), dated to the Akkadian Empire period, roughly 2300–2150 BCE. It documents the delivery of sheep hides, an uncertain commodity called gu-lul, and two plants — likely used in leather-processing and as a food spice — to the imperial capital Akkad. The goods were given to an official named Lugal-itida, and the transaction was logged under a named month. The tablet is a small but vivid piece of the supply-chain administration that kept the Akkadian Empire running, connecting a provincial city to the capital through a paper trail of hides and herbs.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Five sheep hides and three units of gu-lul [commodity uncertain], along with five sila each of u2-hab2 herb and gazi spice, were handed over to Lugal-itida for delivery to Akkad. A middle line naming a 'king' and what may be another commodity or title is too damaged to read. The whole transaction was completed in the month of nig2-kiri6.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine5 sheep hides 3 gu-lul 5 sila of u2-hab2 5 sila of gazi Lugal-itida [...] lugal(?) [...] si [x] to Akkad he gave to him month: nig2-kiri6
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
5(asz@c) kusz# udu 3(asz@c) gu#-lul 5(disz) sila3 u2-hab2 5(disz) sila3 gazi# lugal#-iti-da x lugal#? x si [x] a-ga-de3-sze3 e-na-szum2 iti# nig2#-kiri6#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 054. 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 147 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472354). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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