Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 130
About this tablet
An Akkadian-period textile inventory from Adab (modern Bismaya, central Iraq), probably dating to the 23rd or 22nd century BCE. It records successive lots of two garment categories — a standard type called nig2-la2 and a finer or differently constructed cloth called šà-ga-dù — each lot confirmed as stored in a basket and present in an institutional storeroom, most likely a palace or temple. The consistent alternating pattern of quantity / basket / confirmation-note is standard Mesopotamian administrative bookkeeping. Cloth was one of the primary commodities of the ancient Mesopotamian economy, and records like this tracked its movement from production into storage with meticulous precision.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The tablet records six batches of garments held in a storeroom: 40 standard body-wraps, verified in one basket; then two further lots of roughly 30 garments each (both entries are too damaged to read in full), each in its own basket; then 35 more standard garments in a basket; then 70 fine šà-ga-dù garments in a basket; and finally 80 fine šà-ga-dù garments together with 10 standard ones, all sharing a single last basket. Each entry closes with the note that the basket is present and accounted for.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine40 nig2-la2 garments — nig2-su-a [type] 1 basket — in stock 30 [...] 1 basket — [in stock] 30[+?] [...] 1 basket — in stock 35 nig2-la2 garments 1 basket — in stock 70 šà-ga-dù garments 1 basket — in stock 80 šà-ga-dù garments 10 nig2-la2 garments 1 basket — [in stock]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
4(u@c)# tug2 nig2-la2 nig2#-su-a 1(asz@c)# pisan# i3-gal2# 3(u@c) [...] 1(asz@c) pisan# [i3-gal2] 3(u@c)# [...] 1(asz@c) pisan# i3-gal2 3(u@c) 5(asz@c) tug2 nig2-la2 1(asz@c) pisan i3-gal2 1(gesz2@c) 1(u@c) tug2 sza3-ga-du3 1(asz@c) pisan i3-gal2# 1(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) tug2 sza3-ga-du3 1(u@c) tug2 nig2-la2 1(asz@c) pisan i3-[gal2]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 130. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: CL 306 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472430). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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