Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 295
About this tablet
This is a short administrative personnel roster from the city of Adab, dating to the Akkadian period. It tallies workers by occupational category — cupbearers, a barber, a fuller, a craftsman-type worker, general craftsmen, and temple personnel associated with the storm god Iškur — totaling seventeen men, who were assigned or handed over to an individual named Lu-Iškur. Such tablets are the everyday bookkeeping of an ancient institution (palace or temple) tracking labor allocations, and this one offers a glimpse into how workforces were organized and distributed in one of Mesopotamia's early administrative centers.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This record lists workers by trade: five cupbearers, one barber, one launderer, one man holding the title (or trade) 'ka-ku3,' five craftsmen, and four men attached to the Iškur temple. Added together that comes to seventeen men. These workers were assigned — or handed over — to a man named Lu-Iškur. It reads like a staffing memo: so many people of each job, a grand total, and the name of the person now responsible for them.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine5 cupbearers, 1 barber, 1 fuller (launderer), 1 ka-ku3 (title/craftsman uncertain), 5 craftsmen (geš-kin-ti), 4 men of Iškur (workers/personnel of the Iškur temple). Total: 20 minus 3 — (i.e.) 17 men. (To) Lu-Iškur — were given / he gave.
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
5(asz@c)# sagi# 1(asz@c) szu-i 1(asz@c) lu2 azlag2 1(asz@c) ka-ku3 5(asz@c) gesz-kin-ti 4(asz@c) lu2-iszkur szunigin 2(u@c) la2 3(asz@c) lu2 lu2-iszkur e-na-szum2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 295. 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 107 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472595). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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