Position in chronology
MVN 05, 131
About this tablet
A livestock receipt from Puzriš-Dagan (modern Drehem), the great royal animal depot near Nippur that funneled sheep, goats and cattle to the temples and the royal table. On the 22nd day of the month of Ninazu's festival, in the first year of King Ibbi-Suen (c. 2028 BCE), the official Ur-kununna took charge of twenty sheep and ten mature billy-goats handed over by Aba-Enlil-gin, all of them classed as šu-gid₂ — animals drawn off for slaughter and inspection. The tablet explicitly labels itself a 'copy' (gaba-ri) of a sealed original held under the seal of Abba-kalla, and closes with a running total of thirty head.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Twenty sheep and ten full-grown billy-goats, entered under the šu-gid₂ (inspection/kitchen) account. Dated the 22nd day. Transferred from Aba-Enlil-gin; Ur-kununna signed for them. This is a duplicate of the sealed record kept by Abba-kalla. Month of the Ninazu festival, in the year Ibbi-Suen became king. Total: 30 head.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine20 [sheep], 10 full-grown billy-goats — šu-gid₂ (animals taken in for the inspection/kitchen account). Day 22. From Aba-Enlil-gin Ur-kununna took them in charge. Copy. Sealed tablet of Abba-kalla. Month: "Festival of Ninazu." Year: I[bbi]-Suen [(became) king]. (Total:) 30 head of sheep/goats.
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
2(u) [udu] 1(u) masz2-gal szu-gid2 u4 2(u) 2(disz)-kam ki a-ba-en-lil2-gin7-ta ur-ku3-nun-na i3-dab5 gaba-ri kiszib3 ab-ba-kal-la iti ezem-nin-a-zu mu i-[bi2]-suen# [lugal] 3(u) udu
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 05, 131. 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 114351 (private: anonymous, unlocated) — from Puzriš-Dagan (mod. Drehem) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P114351). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.