Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/1, pl. 059, 1924-0553
About this tablet
A small administrative receipt from Puzriš-Dagan (modern Drehem, near Nippur), the great state livestock and commodity depot of the Third Dynasty of Ur, dating to around 2050 BCE. It records the delivery of 24 talents of a particular grade of wool, drawn from the sheep-house of the sacred city of Tummal, and formally received by an official named Nūr-Suen. The year is identified by the manufacture of a great throne for the god Enlil — a standard Ur III dating formula. Thousands of such tablets were produced at Drehem, giving modern historians an extraordinarily detailed picture of how the Ur III state managed its vast economic flows.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Translation · reference
Medium confidence24 talents of wool (of) gir₂-gul (quality/type), at the stone(-weight standard of) 1 talent (and) 1⅔ minas each, via (the authority of) Šulgi-mišar, wool of the é-udu (sheep-house) of Tummal, from [PN]-Inanna, delivered (lit. brought in): Nūr-Suen received. Month: Šu-eššá, Year: the throne of Enlil was fashioned.
Source: engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation)
Translation · AI engine
read from photo24 talents of wool (of) gir₂-gul (quality/type), at the stone(-weight standard of) 1 talent (and) 1⅔ minas each, via (the authority of) Šulgi-mišar, wool of the é-udu (sheep-house) of Tummal, from [PN]-Inanna, delivered (lit. brought in): Nūr-Suen received. Month: Šu-eššá, Year: the throne of Enlil was fashioned.
7 uncertain terms ↓
- gir₂-gul — A wool quality or type designation; not fully understood. May refer to a specific preparation, cut, or provenance. Appears in other Drehem wool texts but its precise meaning remains debated.
- na4 1(asz) gu2 1(disz) 2/3(disz) ma-na-ta — The stone-weight rate clause: '(at/by the stone of) 1 talent (and) 1⅔ minas each.' This likely specifies the standard weight used to measure each bundle or lot, a common Ur III accounting device. The exact logistical meaning of the rate is debated in the literature.
- ki# x-inanna-ta — The source official's name is partially broken/unclear. The scholar marks 'ki#' as uncertain and 'x' as unread. The person's name ends in '-Inanna' (a theophoric element), but the initial component cannot be read from the tablet surface.
- mu-kux(DU) — Standard Ur III delivery verb, literally 'was brought in' (DU used for the logogram kux = entry/delivery). Rendered 'delivered' or 'brought in' here.
- e2-udu tum-ma-al — é-udu = 'sheep-house/pen'; Tummal was a sacred precinct near Nippur with major religious significance and its own administered flocks. The wool here originates from that institution's herds.
- iti szu-esz5-sza — The month name Šu-eššá: the 8th month of the Ur III administrative calendar (used at Nippur/Drehem). The exact Gregorian equivalent depends on the year.
- mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2 — Year formula: 'Year: the throne of Enlil was fashioned.' Several Ur III year names reference construction of divine thrones; the precise regnal year this corresponds to requires identification against the full Ur III year-name list.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows a small, rounded pillow-shaped Ur III tablet — the characteristic Drehem format — with both obverse (upper centre in the composite image) and reverse (lower panel) displayed, plus the two edges at left and right. The clay surface is moderately eroded and the wedge impressions are shallow; the upper lines of the obverse are the clearest, while the lower lines and reverse are more worn. I can make out clusters of wedges consistent with numeric signs in the first line and what appear to be personal-name signs in the middle lines, but the resolution is insufficient to confirm individual signs with certainty. The transliteration is consistent with well-known Drehem wool-delivery formulae. The year formula 'mu gu-za en-lil₂-la₂ ba-dim₂' ('Year: the throne of Enlil was fashioned') is attested in Šulgi year 46 / Šū-Suen or Amar-Suen reign contexts; exact year assignment would require parallel attestations. 'gir₂-gul' as a wool quality or provenance term and the weight standard notation 'na₄ 1(asz) gu₂ 1(disz) 2/3(disz) ma-na-ta' (per-stone rate of 1 talent 1⅔ minas) are standard Drehem accounting idioms. The personal name before -Inanna in the 'ki…-ta' line is marked with # and an x in the transliteration, indicating the scholar could not read it clearly; the photo cannot resolve it either.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 12, 2026 · 3203 in / 1310 out tokens
Why it matters
Transliteration
2(u) 4(asz) gu2 siki gir2-gul na4 1(asz) gu2 1(disz) 2/3(disz) ma-na-ta giri3 szul-gi-mi-szar siki e2-udu tum-ma-al ki# x-inanna-ta mu-kux(DU) nu-ur2-suen szu ba-ti iti szu-esz5-sza mu gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/1, pl. 059, 1924-0553. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ur-Nammu y14 — The throne of Enlil was fashioned based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P142812) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation).
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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.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.