Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 223
About this tablet
This is a small administrative memo from the city of Adab, recording a delivery of hides or worked leather to the workshop of the fullers (cloth-washers/launderers) — an institution that in this period needed leather for tools, containers, or finishing processes. A named individual, Ur-Enlil, is recorded as receiving the goods, with the transaction dated by month and closed with the name of another official, Lugal-a, likely the one who authorized or recorded the delivery. It is an ordinary bookkeeping entry — the kind of everyday paperwork that kept a Mesopotamian craft workshop supplied and accountable.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records that 29 pieces of sorted leather — part of the current stock of hides — were delivered and received by a man named Ur-Enlil, on behalf of or destined for the fullers' workshop. The delivery was logged in the month of Šuba-nun, and the entry was finalized or witnessed by an official named Lugal-a. In short: a routine receipt confirming that a batch of hides reached the laundry/fulling house and was checked into the books.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine29 (30 minus 1) hides, selected/sorted leather — leather, current (daily) goods, received (returned to hand): Ur-Enlil, (the) tenth / Susi(?), (from/for) the house of the fullers, delivery, month: Šuba-nun, Lugal-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
3(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) kusz dag2#-ga kusz nig2 u4-da#-kam szu-a gi4-a ur-en-lil2 su-si-kam e2 lu2 azlag2-ge-ne-ka an-kux(KWU636) iti szubax(|MUSZ3xZA|)-nun lugal-a
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 223. 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 082 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472523). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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Related sources
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