Position in chronology
NRVN 1, 298
About this tablet
This is a short Ur III administrative receipt from Nippur, one of thousands of everyday bureaucratic records from the archives of the temple economy around 2040 BCE. It records a delivery of 822 fired or sun-dried bricks, issued as an interest-bearing loan from a kiln's storage area to a storehouse, received by a man named Lu-ušku'ga and witnessed or countersigned by Lu-eškuga, son of Lani. Such texts illustrate how tightly Mesopotamian institutions tracked even basic building materials — bricks, like grain or silver, could be lent out and owed back with interest.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is a receipt: 822 bricks were handed out as a loan (to be repaid with interest) from the stock kept by the kiln, meant for the storehouse. A man named Lu-ušku'ga signed for them. The transaction is dated to day 12 of the month called "Bricks," in the year that came two years after the building of the Amorite wall — a standard Ur III year-name (equivalent to around the sixth regnal year of king Šu-Suen). The record closes by naming Lu-eškuga, son of Lani, presumably the official who authorized or oversaw the transfer.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine822 bricks, as an interest-bearing loan (ur5-ra), from the bank of the kiln (im-gir4-ra), for delivery to the storehouse (ganun) — Lu-ušku'ga received. Month: "Bricks" (iti sig4-ga), day 12 having passed. Year: "the year after 'the Amorite wall was built'", the year after that. Lu-eškuga, son of Lani.
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(gesz'u) 3(gesz2) 4(u) 2(disz) sig4 al-ur5-ra gu2 im-gir4#-ra-ta ga2-nun ti-sze3 lu2-usz-ku3-ga-ke4 szu ba-ti iti! sig4-ga u4 1(u) 2(disz) ba-zal mu us2-sa bad3 mar-tu ba-du3-a mu us2-sa-bi lu2-esz3-ku3-ga dumu la-ni
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NRVN 1, 298. 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 Šulgi y38 — Year after: The Amorite wall was built based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Ist Ni 01431 (cast: CBS 09541 ?) (Arkeoloji Müzeleri, Istanbul, Turkey) — from Nippur (mod. Nuffar) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P122516). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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