Orient 55, 169 no. 17

~2037 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P424386

About this tablet

A livestock mortality record from Puzriš-Dagan (modern Drehem), the great royal animal-collection center near Nippur, dated to the fourth year of King Šu-Sin (about 2034 BCE). On the 21st of the third month, four dead animals — a yearling ox, five sheep, a ewe, and a lamb — were transferred from a keeper named Du'udu to an official called Šulgi-irigu, who signed for them. Carcasses still had value (hides, tendons, meat), so the Ur III bureaucracy tracked dead animals as carefully as living ones. The year is named for one of the most famous public works of the age: the wall built across the northern frontier to hold back the Amorites, 'Muriq-Tidnim,' 'the one that keeps Tidnum at a distance.'

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

Written in modern English

Livestock deaths, day 21: one yearling ox, five sheep, one ewe, one lamb. The carcasses were handed over by Du'udu and received by Šulgi-irigu. Third month of the year in which King Šu-Sin of Ur built the Amorite wall Muriq-Tidnim. Total: one ox and seven sheep.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

1 ox, one year old, 5 sheep, 1 ewe, 1 lamb — they died; day 21. From Du'udu, Šulgi-irigu has received. Month: u5-bi2-gu7 (third month). Year: Šu-Sin, king of Ur, built the Amorite wall (called) Muriq-Tidnim. (Total:) 1 ox, 7 sheep.

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

Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.

Transliteration

1(disz) gu4 mu 1(asz)
5(disz) udu
1(disz) u8
1(disz) sila4
ba-ug7 u4 2(u) 1(disz)-kam
ki du-u2-du-ta
szul-gi-iri-gu10
szu ba-ti
iti u5-bi2-gu7
mu szu-suen lugal uri5-ma-ke4 bad3 mar-tu mu-ri-iq-ti-id-ni-im mu-du3
1(disz) gu4 7(disz) udu

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Orient 55, 169 no. 17. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šu-Suen y1 — Šu-Suen became king based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.

Attribution

Image: WCMA 20.1.19 (Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA) — from Puzriš-Dagan (mod. Drehem) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P424386). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~2050 BCE

Drehem Cattle-Distribution Tablet

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.

~3300 BCE

AoF 30, 238,1