Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 270
About this tablet
This is a small Akkadian-period administrative tablet from Adab (modern Bismaya), recording the weighing and disbursement of bronze or metal fittings stripped from an old, worn-out chariot that had belonged to the city's governor (ensi). The pieces — named parts of the dismantled vehicle — were weighed out (2 2/3 minas total) and handed over to a person named Ur-a2, with the transaction falling under the purview of a seal-cutter, likely because the metal or the object itself was destined for his workshop. Texts like this illuminate the mundane afterlife of royal or gubernatorial property: broken equipment did not simply vanish but was tracked, weighed, and reassigned by scribes, giving us a rare glimpse into craft-supply chains in a third-millennium BCE provincial city.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This record logs the breakdown of an old chariot that once belonged to the governor. Three named parts of the vehicle were removed and weighed together at 2 2/3 minas. They were handed over to a man named Ur-a2, and the handover was confirmed as received. The whole transaction was recorded as falling under the responsibility of a seal-cutter (likely the craftsman who would reuse or work the material). The entry is dated to the month called Ab-e-ziga.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 eš-munsub (a chariot fitting/part); 1 bar-ra of a chariot (a side-piece/rail); 1 šallatum (a chariot part); their weight: 2 2/3 mina; (they are from) an old chariot of the ensi (governor); to Ur-a2 it was given; returned to hand (received/accounted for) — it is (the responsibility/matter) of the seal-cutter. Month: ab-e3-zi-ga.
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(asz@c) esz2-munsub 1(asz@c) bar-ra gigir2 1(asz@c) szal-la-tum ki-la2-bi 2(asz@c) 2/3(asz@c) ma-na gigir2 sumun ensi2-kam ur-a2 e-na-szum2 szu-a gi4-a bur-gul-kam iti ab-e3-zi#-ga#
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 270. 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 110 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472570). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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