Position in chronology
MVN 05, 036
About this tablet
A small livestock account from Umma in southern Iraq, written under the Third Dynasty of Ur (about 2040 BCE). It records two dead animals — an adult female goat and a female kid — struck from the herd of a man named Lugal-massu, with the transfer certified by the seal of the official ARAD. The seal itself names him: Arad-mu, a scribe and son of Ur-nigar, one of the province's livestock managers. Even carcasses had to be accounted for in the Ur III bureaucracy, which tracked every animal that entered or left state herds.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two animals dead: one nanny-goat and one female kid, both from the large flock. Written off from the holdings of Lugal-massu and certified with the seal of ARAD. Dated to the month of the Šulgi festival, in the year when En-unugal was installed as high priest of Inanna. The seal on the tablet reads: Arad-mu, scribe, son of Ur-nigar the livestock administrator.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 nanny-goat, 1 female kid — (both) fallen (i.e. dead animals); sheep of the large (flock). From Lugal-massu; sealed tablet of ARAD. Month: "Festival of Šulgi." Year: "En-unugal was installed (as en-priest) of Inanna." (Seal inscription) ARAD-[mu], scribe, son of Ur-nigar, the livestock administrator (šuš₃).
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) ud5 1(disz) asz2-gar3 ri-ri-ga udu gu-la ki lugal-mas-su2-ta kiszib3 ARAD2 iti ezem-szul-gi mu en-unu6-gal inanna ba-hun ARAD2-[mu] dub-sar dumu ur-nigar szusz3!
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 05, 036. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y4 — En-unugal of Inanna installed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Anonymous 114256 (private: anonymous, unlocated) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P114256). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.