Position in chronology
MVN 05, 076
About this tablet
A small Ur III accounting tablet from Umma in southern Iraq, dated to about 2035 BCE. It records foodstuffs — a jar of drink, three kinds of flour, and dates — issued from the stores of an official named Lugal-niglagare and set aside for a religious offering. The seal impressed on it belongs to En-kas, a scribe and son of Ur-Ištaran, whose name and title functioned as the ancient equivalent of a signature authorizing the disbursement.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Released from Lugal-niglagare's stores: one jar of usa-drink of standard grade, twelve liters of fine gu-flour, five liters of sig-flour, three liters of dates, and three liters of esza-flour. The withdrawal was certified under the seal of Kas and the goods were designated for the Uku-nuti offering. Dated to the month of Dumuzi in the year after King Šu-Suen built the Amorite wall. The seal on the tablet reads: En-kas, scribe, son of Ur-Ištaran.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 jar of usa-drink, ordinary (quality); 1 ban2 2 sila3 of gu-flour; 5 sila3 of sig15-flour; 3 sila3 of dates; 3 sila3 of esza-flour — from Lugal-niglagare; sealed document of Kas; offering of/for Uku-nuti. Month: Dumuzi. Year after: Šu-Suen the king built the Amorite wall. (Seal) En-kas, scribe, son of Ur-Ištaran.
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(disz) dug U2.SA du 1(ban2) 2(disz) sila3 zi3-gu 5(disz) sila3 zi3 sig15 3(disz) sila3 zu2-lum 3(disz) sila3 esza ki lugal-nig2-[lagar-e-ta] kiszib3 kas4 siskur2 uku2!-nu-ti iti dumu-zi mu us2-sa szu-suen lugal-[e] bad3 mar-tu [ba]-du3 en-kas4 dub-sar dumu ur-isztaran
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 05, 076. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y2 — Year after: Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Anonymous 114296 (private: anonymous, unlocated) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P114296). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-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.