Position in chronology
TMH 05, 161
About this tablet
A small clay receipt from Nippur recording two animals — a white goat and a fat-tailed sheep — handed over from a man named Ur-ur, each transfer supervised by a named official (Iriš in one case, Ilī-bēlī in the other). The sheep was earmarked for the new-moon observance at the start of the month Gan-gan-e. Tablets like this are the routine bookkeeping of a temple or palace livestock office: who delivered what animal, on whose authority, and for which festival, closed out with a running total of "2 head."
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One white goat, delivered by Ardu-tur, with Iriš acting as the responsible officer. One fat-tailed sheep, set aside for the new-moon offering at the beginning of the month of Gan-gan-e, with Ilī-bēlī as the responsible officer. Both animals came from Ur-ur's account. The record is labelled "broad tablet" (or issued to a man of that name), and the account closes with the total: two head of livestock.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 white goat — Ardu-tur brought (it); Iriš was the commissioner. 1 fat-tailed sheep — for the new-moon (offering) at the head of the month, month: Gan-gan-e (month IX); Ilī-bēlī was the commissioner. From Ur-ur. Dub-dagal (the "broad tablet"). Total: 2 head (of livestock).
Our translation engine — Opus 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
1(asz@c) masz2 babbar ar3-du2-tur al6-DU i3-ri2-isz maszkim 1(asz@c) gukkal sag iti-sakar gan-gan-e3 i3-li2-be6-li2 maszkim ki ur-ur-ta dub-dagal 2(asz@c) sag
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 161. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Hilprecht Collection, University of Jena, Germany (P020575) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.