Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 201
About this tablet
This is a textile-account tablet from Adab, dating to the Sargonic (Old Akkadian) period, roughly the 23rd century BCE. It records batches of woven garments — fine 'nig-lam' cloth and 'bar-dul' cloaks — attributed to a weaver and to a household steward (šabra), each entry weighed out in minas for the palace or temple's accounting records. Such tablets were part of the routine bureaucratic machinery that tracked textile production, one of the great state-run industries of early Mesopotamia, where thousands of weavers (often women) produced cloth under institutional supervision.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This record tallies cloth production for the accounts. Two fine garments came in from the weaver, and one cloak from the household steward, together weighing nine minas (roughly 4.5 kg). The next line names someone called Sebetum, but the sign after her name is broken and its meaning is lost. Then three more fine garments from the weaver weighed another nine minas, and a further cloak from the weaver weighed seven minas. The scribe totals the batch and dates the record to two months — Shubanun and Abusa'a — suggesting either a combined tally covering both months or a correction spanning the turn of the month.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 nig-lam garments (fine-quality cloth) — of the weaver; 1 bar-dul cloak — of the household manager (šabra); its weight: 9 minas. Sebetum(?) ... [sign broken] 3 nig-lam garments — of the weaver; its weight: 9 minas. 1 bar-dul cloak — of the weaver; its weight: 7 minas. Grand total. Month: Shubanun. Month: Abusa'a.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
2(asz@c) tug2 nig2-lam2 usz-bar 1(asz@c) bar-dul5 szabra ki-la2-bi 9(disz) ma-na se-be2-tum pa? 3(asz@c) tug2 nig2-lam2 usz-bar ki-la2-bi 9(disz) ma-na 1(asz@c) bar-dul5 usz-bar ki-la2-bi 7(disz) ma-na me-nigin3#-ta# iti# szubax(|MUSZ3xZA|)#-nun# iti# ab#-us2#-a#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 201. 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 017 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472501). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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