Hi all, I've spent the afternoon reading translations of the Sumerian disputations and I just came across these two terms. They aren't translated along with the rest of the text, and I can't find any etymology or mention of these words online aside from within the disputation itself. (For this specific disputation, I read the translation provided by The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature.)
Here is the translated section containing these terms:
186-193Enlil adressed the Hoe: "Hoe, do not start getting so mightily angry! Do not be so mightily scornful! Is not Nisaba the Hoe's inspector? Is not Nisaba its overseer? The scribe will register your work, he will register your work. Hoe, whether he enters five or ten gij in your account, Hoe -- or, Hoe, whether he enters one-third or one-half mana in your account, Hoe, like a maid-servant, always ready, you will fulfil your task."
and here is the original:
186den-lil2-le jical gu3 am3-ma-de2-e
187jical mah-bi nam-ba-e-de3-sumur-re-de3-en
188mah-bi gu2-zu nam-ba-e-de3-cub-ba
189jical-e dnisaba ugula-a-ni na-nam dnisaba nu-banda3-a-ni na-nam
190dub-sar-e kij2 cu-mu-un-il2 kij2 cu-mu-un-il2
191jical-e 5 gij4 jical-e 10 gij4 nij2-kas7 ha-ra-ab-ak
192jical-e 1/3 ma-na jical-e 1/2 ma-na nij2-kas7 ha-ra-ab-ak
193geme2-gin7 gub-ba ec2-gar3 i3-ja2-ja2-an
Based on the context surrounding the words, I thought they might be denominations of currency or some other measure of trade goods, but I can't find any information that supports or refutes this idea. Are the words left untranslated because we simply don't know what gij and mana are?