Position in chronology
TMH 05, 171
About this tablet
A small Early Dynastic tablet from Nippur, now in the Hilprecht Collection at Jena, recording the handover of two men from the temple administrator's household to other masters. Each entry names the person transferred, identifies whose man he is, names the person who collected him, and states that he was received 'from the sanga' — the chief administrator of a temple estate. Texts like this show that dependent labourers in mid-third-millennium Sumer were tracked by name, one at a time, and moved between households on written authority.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two transfers of personnel, recorded one after the other. First: one man, Lugal-nigzu, attached to Zi-mu; he was collected from the temple administrator by Lugal-UN, son of Inanna-ursag, who is himself attached to A-su-… . Second: one man, Ur-mes, attached to Erish; Ur-abzu collected him, again from the temple administrator. The tablet is a receipt — proof that both men left the temple's books and entered someone else's.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 (person): Lugal-nigzu, the man of Zi-mu — Lugal-UN, son of Inanna-ur[sag], the man of A-su-…, from the temple administrator (sanga) he [brought] him here. 1 (person): Ur-mes, the man of Erisz — Ur-abzu from the temple administrator (sanga) brought him here.
Our translation engine — Opus 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) lugal-nig2-zu lu2 zi-mu lugal-UN-e dumu inanna-ur#-[sag] lu2 a-su-x ki sanga-ta mu-szi#-[DU] 1(asz@c) ur-mes# lu2 erisz2 ur-abzu-ke4 ki sanga-ta mu-szi-DU
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — TMH 05, 171. 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: Hilprecht Collection, University of Jena, Germany (P020585) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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