Position in chronology
MVN 03, 058
About this tablet
A small livestock account from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, around 2300–2200 BCE, now in the Free Library of Philadelphia. It first lists sheep that left the flock: some handed to named men, some recorded as dead. It then lists the animals still owed, a mixed group of ewes, rams, nanny-goats, billy-goats and lambs. The account ends by naming Lugal-andul, probably the herdsman or official answerable for the flock. It is the routine bookkeeping of a herding contract, in which a shepherd had to account for every animal entrusted to him.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Sheep taken out of the flock: Urni received two rams, Ur-gu one, and Urni another; three sheep died; one more went to E-šu (the name is uncertain). Those are the withdrawals. Still outstanding are 3 ewes, 13 rams, 14 nanny-goats, 11 billy-goats and 7 lambs, the goats and lambs being from the regular delivery. This is Lugal-andul's account.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse/Reverse (no section markers supplied) 1. 2 rams: 2. Urni. 3. 1 (ram): Ur-gu. 4. 1 (ram): Urni. 5. 3 sheep, dead. 6. 1 (sheep): E-šu(?). 7. Sheep withdrawn (from the account). 8. 3 ewes, 9. 13 rams, 10. 14 nanny-goats, 11. 11 billy-goats, regular (delivery), 12. 7 lambs, regular (delivery): 13. deficit (outstanding). 14. It is (the account) of Lugal-andul.
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
2(asz@c) udu-nita ur2-ni 1(asz@c) ur-gu 1(asz@c) ur2-ni 3(asz@c) udu ba-usz2 1(asz@c) e2-szu? udu zi-ga-a 3(asz@c) u8 1(u) 3(asz@c) udu-nita 1(u) 4(asz@c) ud5 1(u) 1(asz@c) masz2 sza3-du10 7(asz@c) sila4 sza3-du10 la2-u5 lugal-an-dul3-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MVN 03, 058. 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: Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (P215711) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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