NRVN 1, 136

~2072 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P122352

About this tablet

This is a small Ur III–period administrative receipt from Nippur, recording a barley loan or interest payment. A man named Ur-Suen received a quantity of barley — described as 'interest' (maš) — from Ur-Šulpa'e, with the transaction dated by month and by a year-name commemorating the destruction of Simurrum, a mountain polity the Ur III kings campaigned against repeatedly. Tablets like this were part of the vast bureaucratic apparatus of the Ur III state, tracking agricultural credit and repayment down to individual officials and their fathers' names.

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

Written in modern English

Ur-Suen received 2 barig 3 ban2 of barley as interest from Ur-Šulpa'e, calculated at a rate of 1 gur 1 barig 4 ban2 per unit. The transaction was recorded on the 5th day of the month of Udru, in the year that Simurrum was destroyed. The receipt is signed off with the recipient's name again — Ur-Suen, son of Sag-[a name now broken off the tablet].

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

2 barig 3 ban2 barley — interest — at (a rate of) 1 gur 1 barig 4 ban2 each. From Ur-Šulpa'e, Ur-Suen received. Month: Udru, day 5 having passed. Year: Simurrum was destroyed. Ur-Suen, son of Sag-[...].

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 — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

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Transliteration

2(barig) 3(ban2) sze masz2 1(asz) gur 1(barig) 4(ban2)-ta
ki ur-szul-pa-e3-ta
ur-suen
szu ba-ti
iti udru
u4 5(disz) ba-zal
mu si-mu-ru-um ba-hul-a
ur-suen#
dumu sag-[...]

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NRVN 1, 136. 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 y23 — Simurrum destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: Ist Ni 00333 (cast: CBS 09738 ?) (Arkeoloji Müzeleri, Istanbul, Turkey) — from Nippur (mod. Nuffar) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P122352). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

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