Position in chronology
Kress 230
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III labor-accounting tablet from Umma, recording a work detail of fifteen men assigned for five days to two named institutional buildings — a construction/masonry establishment and a livestock (goat) house. Such texts were routine bookkeeping by the Umma temple-and-palace bureaucracy, tracking how many laborers were deployed where, who oversaw them (the foreman), who physically conveyed the order or workers (the intermediary), and whose seal authorized the record. The year formula dates it to the reign of King Shulgi of Ur, in the year following his campaign against Kimash — one of the standard year-names used across the Ur III empire for dating everyday documents like this one.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet records that fifteen laborers worked for five days, assigned to two work sites: one connected to the builders'/masons' establishment, and another connected to the goat-house. The crew was overseen by a foreman named Ukkene, the matter was handled through an official named Lu-girizal, and the record was sealed and authorized by Bidugga. The document is dated to the year that Kimash was destroyed — a standard year-name used in the Ur III period, under King Shulgi's reign.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine15 workmen, for 5 days, stationed at the e2-szitim (the builders'/brickmasons' house), stationed at the e2-masz (the goat-house), foreman: Ukkene, via Lu-girizal, under seal of Bidugga. Year: "Kimash 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
1(u) 5(disz) gurusz u4 5(disz)-sze3 e2-szitim gub-ba e2-masz-ka gub-ba ugula ukken-ne2 giri3 lu2-giri17-zal kiszib3 bi2-du11-ga mu ki-masz mu-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Kress 230. 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: Kress 230 (private: anonymous, Germany) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P471645). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-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.