Position in chronology
MVN 05, 126
About this tablet
A one-day livestock receipt from Puzriš-Dagan (modern Drehem), the great royal animal depot near Nippur that supplied the Ur III court around 2035 BCE. Four male gazelles are drawn from the stock of an official named Duga-zida and handed over as šu-gid₂ animals — carcasses assigned to the palace kitchen — to feed the king's gendarmes. The tablet names the responsible officials at every step: ARAD-mu as the authorizing enforcer, Ip-ḫur the šarabdu as the conveying agent, and it is dated to the first day of the month Akiti in the year after Šu-Suen built the wall against the Amorites. Bureaucratic bookkeeping of this precision, down to the day, is what makes the Drehem archive one of the best-documented administrations of the ancient world.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Four male gazelles, booked as kitchen meat, issued to feed the gendarmes. ARAD-mu authorized the transaction; the animals were drawn from Duga-zida's holdings and delivered by Ip-ḫur, the šarabdu-official. Dated the first day of the month of Akiti, in the year after King Šu-Suen of Ur built the Amorite wall named "It-Keeps-Tidnum-at-a-Distance." Total: 4 head.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine4 male gazelles, šu-gid₂ (animals) for the kitchen, on account of the gendarmes; ARAD-mu was the enforcer (maškim). Month: 1 day having elapsed. From Duga-zida they were expended. Via Ip-ḫur, the šarabdu-official. Month: Akiti. Year after: "Šu-Suen, king of Ur, built the Amorite wall (called) Muriq-Tidnim." 4 (head).
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
4(disz) masz-da3-nita2 szu-gid2 e2-muhaldim mu aga3-us2-ke4-ne-sze3 ARAD2-mu maszkim iti u4 1(disz) ba-zal ki du11-ga-zi-da-ta ba-zi giri3 ip-hur sza-ra-ab-du iti a2-ki-ti mu us2-sa szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 bad3 mar-tu mu-ri-iq-ti-id-ni-im ba-du3 4(disz)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 05, 126. 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). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y2 — Year after: Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Anonymous 114346 (private: anonymous, unlocated) — from Puzriš-Dagan (mod. Drehem) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P114346). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-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.