Position in chronology
MLVS 010
About this tablet
This is a small Early Dynastic account tablet, likely from a Sumerian temple or palace household in the mid-third millennium BCE, that tracks the issuing of ox-hides and calf-hides — raw leather — for specific equipment: fittings for a plow team and a 'good' chariot. It closes with a month-name, 'Granary Heaped Up,' anchoring the transaction to the agricultural calendar, and a note that the hides were 'consumed,' i.e., used up in production. Texts like this show how even leather scraps and animal hides were carefully rationed and logged by early bureaucratic institutions.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One ox-hide and one calf-hide were issued for fittings related to the plow team. Two ox-hides were handed out for a good-quality chariot. Two more ox-hides were issued for another item, called here 'IG-NI-du10,' whose exact identity is unclear. All of this happened in the month known as 'Granary Heaped Up,' and the hides are recorded as used up or consumed. The tablet breaks off after this, with only a few illegible traces remaining.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 hide of ox, hide of calf — for the plow('s fitting/harness) — allotted (ba-PAD-PAD). 2 hides of ox — for the good chariot — disbursed/weighed out (ba-la2). 2 hides of ox — for the IG-NI-du10 (object/fitting) — disbursed/weighed out (ba-la2). Month: 'Granary Heaped Up' (guru7 dub-ba-a). Was consumed/allotted (ba-gu7). [......] (traces, illegible).
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(asz@c) kusz gu4 kusz amar nag apin-na ba-PAD-PAD 2(asz@c) kusz gu4 gigir2-du10 ba-la2 2(asz@c) kusz gu4 IG-NI-du10 ba-la2 iti guru7 dub-ba-a ba-gu7 [x x] x x x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — MLVS 010. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: de Liagre Böhl Collection, Netherlands Institute for the Near East, Leiden, Holland (P247607) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.