Position in chronology
MVN 05, 084
About this tablet
A short bookkeeping tablet from Puzriš-Dagan (modern Drehem), the great livestock and labor clearing-house of the Ur III state, dated to the first year of King Ibbi-Sin (c. 2028 BCE). It records a transfer of workmen from one official's account to another's, certified by the seal of a scribe named Abba-kalla, whose name and title are impressed on the tablet itself. The left side of each line is broken away, so the numbers of men and the names of the parties are lost — but the closing formula, the month of the barley harvest, and the year-name survive intact.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A number of workmen — the figure is broken off — were transferred from one account and taken over by an official whose name survives only in part. The transaction was certified with the seal of Abba-kalla. Dated to the month of the barley harvest, in the year Ibbi-Sin came to the throne. The seal itself reads: 'Abba-kalla, scribe, son of ...' — the father's name is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[... ] workmen, [from ...], [PN]-ga took in charge (received). [Sealed tablet of Abba-kalla.] Month: še-sag-ku (harvest month). Year: Ibbi-Suen (became) king. (Seal inscription:) Abba-kalla, the scribe, son of [...].
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
[...] gurusz [...]-ta [...]-ga i3-dab5 [kiszib3 ab-ba-kal-la] iti sze-sag11-ku5 mu i-bi2-suen lugal ab-ba-kal-la dub-sar dumu [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 05, 084. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ibbi-Suen y1 — Ibbi-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Anonymous 114304 (private: anonymous, unlocated) — from Puzriš-Dagan (mod. Drehem) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P114304). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.