Position in chronology
MVN 03, 109
About this tablet
A small herding record from the Old Akkadian (Sargonic) period, around the 23rd century BCE. It lists a shepherd called Ur-Utu's holdings or obligations in goats and goat products: breeding she-goats, kids, clarified butter and goat hair. The note "6 years, 3 months" at the end probably gives the length of time the account covers, or of Ur-Utu's herding contract. It is a glimpse of how goats were managed for their dairy and fibre, with written records kept over several years.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two breeding nanny goats, two young kids, four liters of clarified butter and four measures of goat hair are entered under Ur-Utu, the shepherd, who has agreed to them or holds them in his charge. The account covers a period of six years and three months.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse/Reverse (no section division given in the source): 1. 2 mother goats (nanny goats), 2. 2 kids, 3. 4 sila of ghee, 4. 4 (units) of goat hair: 5. Ur-Utu, the shepherd, 6. i3-da-šex (has agreed / is in charge of them with him). 7. (Period:) 6 years, 3 months.
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
2(asz@c) ud5 ama 2(asz@c) masz2 4(asz@c) i3-nun sila3 4(asz@c) siki-ud5-da ur-utu sipa-da i3-da-szex(SIG7) 6(disz@t) mu 3(disz@t) iti
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — MVN 03, 109. 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 (P215757) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.