Position in chronology
AAS 048
About this tablet
A small administrative tablet from the city of Umma in southern Iraq, dated to approximately 2045 BCE (the 47th year of the Ur III king Šulgi). It records the transfer of two dairy animals — a milk-cow and a milk-ox — to a cattle-driver, handled through a named official and collected by a royal courier. The date formula anchors the document precisely: it was written in the year Šulgi's armies destroyed the cities of Harshi and Kimash in the Zagros mountains, a detail that makes even routine livestock paperwork a small window onto imperial Ur III politics.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A courier received one milk cow and one milk ox, handed over through Abba-gina the herdsman, destined for the calf-driver of the cattle herd. The transaction is dated to the year Harshi and Kimash were destroyed.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 cow (with) milk 1 ox (with) milk [for the] calf-driver (of the) cattle, via Abba-gina, the herdsman — the courier has received (it). Year: Harshi (and) Kimash were destroyed.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Engine notes
read from photo5 uncertain terms ↓
- amar gu4-lah5 — Literally 'calf, cattle-driver/leader-of-cattle'; gu4-lah5 is a compound occupational term for one who drives/leads cattle. The '#' in the transliteration signals the sign is partially damaged.
- kas4 i3-dab5 — 'The runner has taken charge / has received (it).' kas4 = runner/courier; i3-dab5 = he/she has taken/received. Standard Ur III administrative formula for transfer of responsibility.
- ha-ar-szi ki-masz — Harshi and Kimash: two cities/regions in the Zagros foothills conquered by Šulgi. This is the standard Ur III year name for Šulgi year 47. The Akkadian forms Ḫarši and Kimaš are attested in multiple year-name lists.
- ab2 ga / gu4 ga — 'Milk cow' and 'milk ox': ga = milk (Sumerian), used attributively to denote lactating/dairy animals. The distinction ab2 (cow) vs. gu4 (bull/ox) is standard zootechnical vocabulary.
- giri3 — Literally 'foot/via'; used as an administrative preposition meaning 'under the responsibility of' or 'via (a named intermediary).' Here it introduces the responsible official Abba-gina.
Reasoning ↓
Visual examination of AO 19724 (Louvre): The photograph shows a small multi-faced clay tablet displayed in an unfolded layout — obverse, reverse, and edges visible. The surface is moderately well-preserved with legible wedge impressions on the main faces. On the upper central face (obverse), approximately 4–5 horizontal lines of cuneiform are visible; individual signs are small but several clusters are recognizable. I can tentatively make out sign groups consistent with GA (milk), GU4 (ox/bull), and what appears to be a personal name sequence in line 3–4. The lower face (reverse) shows 1–2 further lines consistent with the date formula. The transliteration aligns reasonably well with what is visually discernible, though fine sign details on 'amar gu4-lah5' and 'kas4 i3-dab5' cannot be fully confirmed at this resolution. The date formula 'mu ha-ar-szi ki-masz ba-hul' is a well-known Ur III year name corresponding to Šulgi year 47 (the year Harshi and Kimash were destroyed), providing good contextual anchoring. Museum number AO 19724 and BDTNS/CDLI P100036 are consistent with an Umma administrative tablet of this type.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 2345 in / 839 out tokens
Transliteration
1(disz) ab2 ga 1(disz) gu4 ga amar gu4-lah5# giri3 ab-ba-gi-na unu3 kas4 i3-dab5 mu ha-ar-szi ki-masz ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAS 048. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P100036) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation).
Related tablets
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.