Position in chronology
Lippmann Coll 299
About this tablet
This small clay tablet from Adab (modern Bismaya) is an administrative roster from the Akkadian period, listing ten named individuals — each counted as a single unit — and summing them as 'merchants' (dam-gar3). Two entries identify their bearer as a 'gala,' a lamentation-priest or cultic singer, showing that temple personnel and commercial agents could be grouped together in the same accounting category. Lists like this were part of the everyday bureaucratic machinery of Sargonic-period cities, used to track personnel obligated to the state or temple — whether for taxation, labor duty, or trade oversight.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a simple headcount list: ten men are named one by one — Inimanizi; a lamentation-priest who is the son of Ur-ba; Edam; Lugal-alkal; Dada; Girine (identified together with another as sons of Lugal-alkal); another lamentation-priest, son of Ur-narua; Ur-Ishtaran; Ur-ur; and Az, son of Aba-muna. At the bottom, the scribe totals them up: ten men, classified together as 'merchants.' It reads like a payroll or duty roster rather than a narrative text — just names, parentage where relevant, and a final tally.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 (unit): Inimanizi 1 (unit): gala (lamentation-priest), son of Ur-ba 1 (unit): Edam 1 (unit): Lugal-alkal 1 (unit): Dada 1 (unit): Girine, sons of Lugal-alkal (pl.) [1] (unit): gala (lamentation-priest), son of Ur-narua [1] (unit): Ur-Ishtaran 1 (unit): Ur-ur 1 (unit): Az, son of Aba-muna Total: 10 — merchants (dam-gar3)
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) inim-ma-ni-zi 1(asz@c) gala dumu ur-ba 1(asz@c) e2-dam 1(asz@c) lugal-al#-kal 1(asz@c) da#-da 1(asz@c) giri3-ne2 dumu# lugal-al-<kal>-me [1(asz@c)] gala dumu ur#-na-ru2-a [1(asz@c)] ur#-isztaran 1(asz@c) ur-ur 1(asz@c) az dumu a-ba-mu-na szunigin 1(u@c) dam-gar3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — Lippmann Coll 299. 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 206 (Carl L. Lippmann Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, Spain) — from Adab (mod. Bismaya) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P472599). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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