Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 077
About this tablet
A compact disbursement record from Adab, dating to the Sargonic (Akkadian) period, tracking the distribution of dates to three groups: the chief musician of an institutional household, an official named Da-dum serving under the estate steward, and a contingent of stationed workers. The dates were measured out partly in gurdub containers and totalled 2 gur for the period. Such documents were the mundane paperwork of the palace or temple economy — ensuring that food allocations to personnel were recorded and balanced against the storeroom account. The month name at the end pins the transaction to a specific point in the administrative calendar.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
During the month of Ga2-udu-ur4, the following date rations were issued: 2 barig went to the chief musician; 1 gur 1 barig 3 ban — measured out in ten gurdub containers — was delivered to Da-dum, an official in the steward's household; and 3 ban went to the stationed workers. The total disbursement came to 2 gur of dates, formally expended from the account.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 barig of dates — [for] the chief musician; 1 gur 1 barig 3 ban of dates, 10 gurdub [containers] — given — Da-dum, man of the steward; 3 ban of dates — [they are] stationed workers. Total: 2 gur of dates — disbursed. Month: ga2-udu-ur4.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
2(barig@c) zu2-lum nar-gal 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 3(ban2@c) zu2-<lum> gur 1(u@c) gurdub ab-szum2 da-dum lu2 szabra 3(ban2@c) zu2-lum lu2 gub-ba-me szunigin 2(asz@c) zu2-lum gur ba-zi iti ga2-udu-ur4
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 077. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CL 037 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472377). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
Related tablets
Related sources
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.
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.