Position in chronology
JAC 24, 061 08
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III period livestock-disbursement record from Girsu (modern Tello), part of the vast bookkeeping apparatus of the Neo-Sumerian state that tracked the movement of animals between temple, palace, and private herders. Two grain-fattened sheep are transferred from the palace's sheep-house, via an intermediary named Amar-šuba, into the charge of an official named Imtidam, destined for 'the house of EN.' Such tablets, produced by the thousands, formed the paper trail of a highly centralized redistributive economy managed by professional scribes.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two sheep that had been fattened on grain were transferred out of the palace's livestock house. They came from Amar-šuba and were formally taken into custody by an official named Imtidam, bound for the household or institution called 'EN.' The transaction was recorded on the 5th day of the month GANmaš, in the year following the year Huhnuri was destroyed — a standard Ur III date formula used to fix the transaction in time.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 grain-fed sheep, for the house of EN, from the sheep-house of the palace, from Amar-šuba, Imtidam received (took in charge). Month: GANmaš, day 5 passed. Year following the year: Huhnuri (was destroyed).
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
2(disz) udu niga e2 EN-sze3 e2 udu e2-gal-ta ki amar-szuba3-ta im-ti-dam i3-dab5 iti GAN2-masz u4 5(disz)-kam ba-zal mu us2-sa hu-hu-nu-ri
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — JAC 24, 061 08. 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).
Attribution
Image: TUL LH 21 (Tsurumi University Library, Yokohama, Japan) — from Girsu (mod. Tello) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P448066). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.