Lippmann Coll 231

About this tablet

This is a small administrative receipt from Adab (modern Bismaya) in southern Iraq, dating to the Akkadian (Sargonic) period, roughly the 23rd century BCE. It records a quantity of garlic — a little over twelve units, weighed out at just over three minas — that was returned or accounted for in connection with a man named Dada, identified as a smith. Such tablets were routine bookkeeping: temple or workshop administrators tracked commodities issued to or reclaimed from craftsmen, down to the fraction of a shekel, and dated the transaction by month for the institution's annual records.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

Twelve and a third units of garlic, weighing three minas and thirty-five and a half shekels in total, were checked back in — received and accounted for — from Dada the smith. The transaction was recorded in the harvest month.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

12 1/3 (units of) garlic — its weight: 3 minas, 35 1/2 shekels. Returned to hand (received/accounted for). Dada, the smith. Month: ŠE-ŠE-kin (harvest month).

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

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

1(u@c) 2(asz@c) szum 1/3(asz@c)
ki-la2-bi 3(asz@c) ma-na 3(u) 5(disz) 1/2(disz) gin2
szu-a gi4-a
da-da
simug-kam
iti sze-|SZE.SZE|-kin-am3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 231. 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 014 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472531). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).

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