MVN 05, 033

~2043 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P114253

About this tablet

A small livestock account from Umma in southern Iraq, written about 2040 BCE under the Third Dynasty of Ur. It records the death of a single goat — one of the 'Amorite' breed kept by the provincial herds — transferred out of the account of the herdsman Lugal-azida and certified with the seal of the scribe Lu-kalla. The seal legend names Lu-kalla as the son of Ur-e'e, a chief livestock officer, so the family ran the province's animal bookkeeping. Even a dead goat had to be documented: Ur III administration tracked every head of livestock, alive or dead, by name, month and year.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

One Amorite nanny-goat is recorded as dead, written off from the holdings of Lugal-azida. The transaction was certified under the seal of Lu-kalla in the month of Min-eš, in the year En-unugal was installed as priest of Inanna. The seal itself reads: 'Lu-kalla, scribe, son of Ur-e'e, the livestock administrator.'

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

1 Amorite nanny-goat — it died. From Lugal-azida. Sealed tablet of Lu-kalla. Month: Min-eš. Year: En-unugal was installed (as en-priest) of Inanna. (Seal inscription:) Lu-kalla, scribe, son of Ur-e'e, the livestock administrator (šuš₃).

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

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(disz) ud5 mar-tu ba-usz2
ki lugal-a2-zi-da-ta
kiszib3 lu2-kal-la
iti min-esz3
mu en-unu6-gal inanna ba-hun
lu2-kal-la
dub-sar
dumu ur-e11-e szusz3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 05, 033. 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 Amar-Suen y4 — En-unugal of Inanna installed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Anonymous 114253 (private: anonymous, unlocated) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P114253). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet (VAT 15211)

An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.

~2050 BCE

Umma Livestock and Personnel Account (AnOr 1, 243)

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.

~3300 BCE

AoF 30, 238,1